Love Poison
by swirlheart
Summary: After Chocho's Valentine's Day gifts are not reciprocated, she decides to make sure no man can ignore her by distributing a love potion among those closest to her, but things go horribly wrong. Rated T to be safe. There is some action involved as well. Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

**Love Poison**

Summary: After Chocho's Valentine's Day gifts are not reciprocated, she decides to make sure no man can ignore her by distributing a love potion among those closest to her, but things go horribly wrong. Rated T to be safe. Please read and review!

Boruto and its characters are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Mikio Ikemoto. This is just a fanfiction written for fun. No profit is being made.

**Chapter 1:**

Chocho sat glaring at her teammates as they met up for lunch at Boruto's favorite burger place with their friends. Despite being on their way to lunch, Chocho's hand never stopped dipping into her bag of chips.

Sarada noticed her friend's continuous glare as she munched on chips and walked closer to her to ask what was wrong.

"It's these two. So uncool."

Shikadai and Inojin turned around. "What's that?"

"You two," she said, crumpling up her empty chip bag. "You call yourselves men? You don't deserve that title. Hmph!" She folded her arms and turned up her nose.

Boruto and Sarada looked at the group, puzzled and uncomfortable.

Shikadai sighed. "Is this about what we said an hour ago? Jeez, what a drag. It's not that big a deal."

"So a lady's feelings are no big deal?"

"It's different with you," said Inojin. "You're our teammate. It's not like you're a hot girl we got feelings for."

Sarada bit her lip, knowing how awful a thing that was to say. Even Boruto knew that was very hurtful. He would have corrected his friend if he didn't want to avoid getting in the middle of this situation. If no one did anything, it was going to be a very awkward lunch.

"When a girl puts her feelings into making something, the guy, or guys in this case, are supposed to show gratitude." Chocho put her hands on her hips. "Don't make me waste my time like I did last year."

"Then don't bother," said Shikadai.

"But if I don't, I'm going to be the only one. Plus, you two are going to hold it over my head forever."

"Just because social convention dictates…"

"You know it's the right thing to do!" Chocho interrupted. "You're really going to be jerks about it? So not cool."

"Uh… What's this about?" Boruto hesitated to ask but couldn't stand it anymore.

Chocho was all too willing to explain while her two teammates stood around rolling their eyes, failing to see the importance and finding it childish.

"Last year for Valentine's Day, I made them both chocolate, which they ate, but then when White Day came along, they didn't reciprocate. I waited all day and these two jerks didn't get me anything."

"Where does it say I have to?" Inojin asked.

"You're expected to!"

"I didn't ask you to give me chocolate."

"You still ate it!"

"If I didn't, you would have, Chubs."

Sarada took her friend's side and started to lecture the boys. "Chocho's right, though. If she gave you guys something, the least you could have done was get her something, too. Especially if she actually went through the trouble of making it."

"Yeah, I mean how hard is it to go to the store and pick up a box of cookies or something?" Boruto chimed in.

Shikadai looked over his shoulder at Boruto. "The guys are expected to reciprocate by giving the girl three times what her gift was worth. It's too troublesome."

"Three times?" Boruto repeated. Then he looked at Chocho. "Are you nuts?"

"Hey, they didn't get me anything."

"Well, three times nothing is still nothing," said Inojin.

"Shut up!"

Chocho grit her teeth. "Valentine's Day is tomorrow and I asked them if I should expect something on White Day if I give them chocolate like I did last year and they told me not to hold my breath."

"I didn't say it in those words," Shikadai defended himself. "All I said was that you shouldn't expect something."

"How is that any different?"

"A gift is given without expectation," he reasoned. "What are you getting mad at me for?"

"Even without expectation, it's still rude not to give her anything in return after going through all that trouble," said Sarada.

"If I'm not going to get appreciation for something I went through all the trouble of making, then why should I bother?" Chocho turned up her nose again. "Real men would show gratitude towards a lady."

Shikadai sighed heavily. "Can we drop this? I gave you an honest answer. At least I gave you a heads up this time. Can we get something to eat now?"

During lunch, the boys sat at one table and the girls another. The boys had changed the subject but Sarada and Chocho continued to discuss the issue.

Naturally, Sarada could completely understand Chocho's feelings. It wasn't so much about reciprocation as it was about gratitude. Chocho didn't want to go through all that trouble over again if she could expect the same result.

It wasn't that Chocho had feelings for either of her teammates. Chocolates could be exchanged between friends and lovers. She even gave some chocolate to her father. He was the only one to show her any sort of appreciation. Not only did he thank her and eat it on the spot, but on White Day, he gave her a new outfit: the white garment she started wearing after graduation.

Her disappointment stemmed from the fact that he was the only one to do anything for her that day. No other boy could be bothered, even after receiving a gift from her. What turned it into a fight was that both her teammates admitted that they weren't going to trouble themselves for her, even if she did something for them.

"It's just not fair," said Chocho. "A girl wants to feel appreciated. After all I do for those guys. I help them out on missions and training. I give advice and try to make them feel better when they're feeling down. And they don't do anything for me."

"I get it," said Sarada. "They're being jerks. I bet they can't be bothered."

"Why didn't you just get her something?" Boruto hissed, noticing the girls shooting them looks from their table.

"Can't we just drop it?" Shikadai asked.

"Did you get something for a girl last year, Boruto?" Inojin asked.

Boruto suspected he was asking in order to gain ammunition when he said he hadn't and was therefore as bad as they were and in no position to criticize. However, that was not the case this time.

"Actually, I did. Himawari got me chocolate, so I gave her some cookies covered in white chocolate. She loved them. Shared them with Mom."

"Huh," said Inojin. "I didn't get Mom anything for White Day last year. Didn't know I could. Then again, she didn't give me chocolate."

Shikadai put his elbow on the table to lean forward in Boruto's face. "Look, Boruto. It's fine when it's your sister giving you something, but it's a little different when a classmate gives you something like that."

"How do you mean?"

"Are you dim? If I got her something, then she might think it means I want to be her boyfriend or something. We were still students at the time. Word could get around and then everyone would start thinking I had feelings for her when I don't."

"Yeah, but you're teammates now. It's different."

"How is it different, Boruto?"

"Well, um… Uh…"

"You see? I have to work with her on missions. If she's giving me goo-goo eyes, thinking I want to be more than friends, then I'm in real trouble."

"Besides, Chocho's got access to all kinds of things," added Inojin, completely missing the point. "She doesn't need our help to get food. I've seen her walk around with things I've never seen before and when I ask her where she got it, she tells me it's a secret."

"I don't think food's the issue here," said Shikadai.

"The issue is that you guys gotta get her something if she gives you something," said Boruto.

"And send the wrong message? No way. That's way too troublesome."

Sarada gave Chocho her fries, hoping it would lighten her mood a little.

"Guys are clueless. You know that. Like I said, they probably couldn't be bothered. They didn't take your feelings into account, but it's probably not personal. You know how guys are."

Chocho scoffed. "Not all of them. My dad gives really good gifts that are well thought out and considerate. He also never complains about the price when he takes Mom out to a fancy dinner on special occasions. He lets her order whatever she wants, no matter how expensive and he doesn't try to talk her out of it."

"Well, your dad's more mature than your teammates, I guess."

"No, it's that he understands that a meal coupled with a special occasion has meaning and should… never be belittled!" Chocho said that last part loud, turning her head to make sure her words reached the next table where Shikadai and Inojin were sitting.

Shikadai slumped in his seat and Inojin frowned.

"You asked us if we would do anything in return and if you should waste your time and we said not to bother," said Inojin. "What's the problem, Chubs?"

Chocho slammed her hand on the table as she got up. "Forget it. You guys are so clueless."

Chocho stormed out of the restaurant, leaving everyone behind at their tables.

Boruto looked across the table at Shikadai and Inojin. "See how upset she is? Why did you say that? Why can't you just get her something to shut her up?"

"Giving an insincere gift shouldn't be given at all," reasoned Shikadai. "I don't want to give her the wrong idea."

"Besides," said Inojin, "where's it say we have to give her something? I haven't seen any rule."

"There's no rule, but the answer for why just stormed out of the building…"

Chocho wandered the village, thinking and muttering to herself about her teammates' lack of respect towards her.

Did they not realize they had hurt her feelings? How she felt when everyone else in the village received a gift from a boy except her?

She remembered looking around the village at all the happy women clutching boxes wrapped in white ribbon and eating white cookies and candies with big smiles. Girls young and old flashing white scarves and purses and flowers and poems written on special white parchment in decorative script.

She waited all day for a boy to give her something. She had given chocolate to a bunch of boys just a month ago. Had they forgotten that quickly? Did they think they could just make her slave in a kitchen all day and give nothing back?

"Jerks," she grumbled. "Stupid jerks."

After the disappointment she went through last year, this year she decided to give the boys a heads up to make sure they were aware of what was expected of them.

"If they're not going to appreciate my hard work, why should I even bother doing anything for them?"

But if she didn't, she was likely to be the only girl in the whole village who didn't participate in the holiday. It seemed a waste to just sit at home and do nothing. But going out in public and seeing everyone else distribute chocolate would be even worse.

"They'll probably rub it in my face if I don't," Chocho decided. "If I do nothing, then they'll have a reason. If I do and they don't, they'll look like the jerks. They're obligated."

The obligation was the issue as far as Shikadai was concerned. He didn't want to do anything just because it was expected of him. If the feelings weren't there, then he didn't see the point.

"Hmph. He doesn't have to have those feelings for me. He just has to let me know he…"

Appreciated her. She wanted recognition. She wanted respect. She wanted to be shown that her feelings mattered. That her actions mattered and that she was appreciated for her efforts.

She sighed, walking into a small shop to get some of her rare treats as a pick-me-up.

As she browsed the shelves, she noticed some new products and called the clerk over.

"What's this?" she asked, pointing to a small vial on the shelf in front of her with the dark purple powered inside.

"That, my dear, is a very special, very rare herb found deep in the mountains. People add it to their tea, believing it to be an aphrodisiac."

"Really? Does it work?"

The old woman laughed. "If people believe ii works then it works. But many other things are also considered to inspire such feelings, such as strawberries and chocolate."

"Oh." Chocho looked at the vial, disappointed.

"If it's rare plants you're wanting, take a look at this book." The woman handed her something from a rotating rack. "This book contains a bunch of information on rare plants and their purposes. Some taste awful but are good for the body. I'm sure that herb's in there, too. Read up on it if you like and make a decision."

Chocho flipped through the book and sure enough found the very same herb on the shelf in its pages.

According to the book, it said the plant was supposed to inspire feelings of love and was marketed years ago as a love potion by traveling merchants. There was little proof it actually worked but some swore by it because they actually ended up dating the person they gave it to, having no knowledge of what it actually was.

The book carried a wealth of information but most of it dealt with healing properties and ingredients to remedies and potions with no real evidence.

Then she stumbled across something interesting. It was a plant that grew in the area which amplified the power of other plants. It was used to strengthen the power of antidotes which were harvested from rare plants. When combined, the antidote, normally being able to provide a single dose, would cure several people.

Chocho read more and more about the plant and in no time at all, she had an idea.

If she combined the aphrodisiac with this miracle plant of sorts, she could, in theory, actually create a real love potion.

Chocho took the bottle off the shelf and brought it to the counter along with the book. "I'll take these and two Sand tarts, please."

* * *

Please review! ^-^


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

Chocho searched for the plant she needed to complete her potion in the woods just outside the village. Luckily, it was easy to find. She gathered as much as she could and carried it back to the village before curfew.

She left the book open as she ground the two ingredients together in a bowl. The purple powder clumped together with the moist plant but she was able to get them mixed together nicely. Now for the next step: adding them to chocolate.

She had no romantic interest in either of her teammates, but she looked forward to having them dote on her after eating her love potion.

"After the way they treated me, it's what they deserve."

She was finally going to get some attention. Finally, she was going to be treated like a princess.

"It's the perfect way to get back at those jerks and make sure I get a decent day for a change."

The fantasy in her mind had everything played out perfectly and she couldn't help but smile at the image of both her teammates taking a bite out of the confection and then crowding her with words or affection and adoration.

She pictured Shikadai's usual scowl contort into a bright, big grin and him falling on his knees before her, hands cupped under his chin as he praised her beauty.

Her image of Inojin was strikingly similar, fantasizing about him bowing at the waist with a hand to his chest like a true gentleman and offering to treat her to the best meal of her life, replacing the nickname 'chubs' for 'darling' instead.

Chocho's smile grew wider as she prepared the molds for her chocolate mixture.

She soon realized that there was enough of the concoction for more than two confections.

"Well, why stop at two?" she asked herself. "I was ignored last year and those two said not to expect anything… So, why not? It's only for a day."

Why not have several guys at once giving her attention and treating her to a meal? Why not have them fight over her? When was something like that ever going to happen again?

Taking advantage of the situation, she decided to indulge and have some added fun.

When everything was finished, she had a total of six chocolates. Two were definitely going to Shikadai and Inojin. As for the remaining four, she hadn't decided yet.

She had until tomorrow to figure it out.

* * *

Come morning, Chocho was treated to a special breakfast of heart shaped pancakes covered in chocolate-dipped fruit. She and her father had the same meal and Choji was quick to thank his wife for the chocolate in honor of Valentine's Day.

Chocho made sure to clean the kitchen last night after she was finished with her experiment so she knew the chocolate her mother prepared was perfectly safe.

She made individual containers for the six chocolates and put them in her bag. This way, she would know which chocolates contained the love potion and keep it separate from her other snacks.

The book never said if the consumer had to be looking at the person in order to fall in love with them or if they would just fall for anybody. Chocho looked forward to finding out.

After breakfast, she hurried out of the house, excited. Her parents didn't suspect a thing.

Chocho found the boys walking down the street and quickly stopped them. She pulled out two boxes and handed them to her teammates.

Shikadai and Inojin exchanged looks. "Um…"

"Here." Chocho insisted. "For you guys."

"We told you yesterday, you don't have to…"

"I want to."

"But we're not…"

"Don't worry about the reciprocation thing," she said, forcing the boxes into their hands. "I'm not going to be the only girl who doesn't give chocolate to someone. Just take them. Enjoy."

They looked at the boxes and then at each other.

"Uh, well, thanks, I guess."

Chocho stared at them expectantly. "Aren't you going to eat them?"

"We just had breakfast."

"Yeah, not everyone can eat like you, Chubs."

Chocho frowned.

"We'll eat them, don't worry."

She didn't want to have to hang around them all day when she still had four other chocolates to deliver. She figured it would be a while before they were hungry enough to eat them, so she didn't badger them about it.

In fact, she had other victims to find.

"Well, I'll see you guys."

They watched Chocho leave abruptly and shrugged.

"I guess she's not mad anymore."

Inojin handed Shikadai his box. "You want mine?"

"No way. I'm saving mine for later. There's no way I can eat both. Why? You think she poisoned it or something to get back at us?"

"No way. I just don't really want it."

"Then give it to someone else."

Inojin looked around. "Well, we're right by my house. I can just leave it there."

"Good thinking. Give it to you mom or something."

"To my mom?" Inojin gave it some thought. "Well, that's not a bad idea, actually. I know girls are supposed to give guys chocolate today, but I'm sure Mom won't mind getting some, too. Might make her happy and if she's in a good mood, that's better for me."

"Go nuts."

Inojin entered his house and called for his mother. Knowing she was probably at the flower shop, he decided to leave the chocolate on the table where she'd find it and left to rejoin Shikadai outside.

Sai came into the kitchen from down the hall, certain he heard something. He spotted the box on the table and went over to it.

"What's this?" He looked around but, finding no one, he turned his attention back to the small box. There was no note and no name written on the box. He opened it to find a single piece of chocolate with a pink heart drizzled on top.

It was Valentine's Day. Perhaps Ino intended it for him, leaving it where he'd find it.

Sai didn't care for sweets but Ino would sometimes make him something sweet on special occasions. The chocolate wasn't very large, about the size of an eraser. The lone piece of chocolate was the perfect size for someone with a small sweet tooth from someone special.

Deciding it must have been from Ino and knowing she would take offense if he rejected her gift on a holiday focused around love, Sai picked up the chocolate and ate it in two bites.

It wasn't overly sweet with a mild, smooth flavor, which he liked. With duties to be done, Sai told himself to thank Ino later and left to get to work.

* * *

Chocho hadn't figured out who else she should give the four remaining chocolates to but she knew who she didn't want fawning over her all day which helped narrow things down a bit.

She spotted Boruto and Sarada arguing over something while Mitsuki just stood and watched.

Mitsuki didn't seem like a bad choice. Most of the time, she didn't know what he was feeling towards anyone. He spoke his mind which she liked but he was honest to a fault, she felt. His personality was weird, however. He didn't display feelings the way other boys his age did which made her curious.

If Mitsuki ate one of the chocolates, would his personality change as well? That might be fun to watch.

The idea of Mitsuki swooning over her had Chocho giggling. The very image of Mitsuki holding her hand and opening doors for her, even crooning outside her window as he played her music on bended knee was almost too much. She couldn't contain herself. It was just too enjoyable and hilarious.

Mitsuki noticed her doubled over in a giggle fit and got the group's attention.

"Chocho seems to be in good spirits today," he told them, breaking up the fight. "I wonder if her teammates apologized. Maybe something happened."

Sarada went over to her friend, relieved she wasn't upset like she was yesterday.

"I'm good, I'm good," Chocho told her, recovering from her giggle fit.

"Is everything ok?" Sarada wanted to know why her friend was so happy today. Something really good must have happened. She wasn't sure if she should bring up the boys. "Did they make things up to you?"

"Oh, they will," assured Chocho.

"I hope they promised you something good."

"You bet."

Chocho reached into her bag and took out a box of chocolate.

"Here, Mitsuki." She handed it to him. "For you. Happy Valentine's Day."

Mitsuki took the small box. "What is this?" It looked like it might contain jewelry, like a necklace or bracelet, but he didn't wear such things and didn't see why Chocho would give him something like that.

"It's chocolate, duh. You know, for Valentine's Day."

"I thought you weren't going to give anyone any because no one would reciprocate."

She waved her hand to dismiss the notion. "Come on, I'm not going to be the only girl who doesn't give a boy chocolate today. It's a holiday. It's supposed to be fun."

"Sarada didn't give me any. Nor Boruto."

"Yeah. Where's our chocol- ow!" Boruto shrank away from Sarada's elbow as it jammed into his gut.

"Hmph!" Sarada turned up her nose at them. "Maybe I was going to give you some later as a surprise. But in light of your attitude, maybe I should just keep it for myself."

"Come on, don't be like that, you know."

Chocho patted Mitsuki on the shoulder, smiling. "You're manlier than Boruto in my book so enjoy the chocolate."

Mitsuki just held the box in his hand. "Thank you." He smiled.

Chocho frowned slightly. "Well. Go on, open it."

"Oh." Mitsuki opened the box and took out the small piece of chocolate with his thumb and two fingers.

No doubt Chocho wanted to know how it tasted and get approval for her skills, so Mitsuki took a bite out of the chocolate.

Chocho watched him, waiting for a reaction.

"It's good," said Mitsuki.

"It is?"

"Yes." Mitsuki put the rest of the chocolate into his mouth to affirm this, eating the whole thing in front of her.

He had no reaction.

Was this just how Mitsuki was or did the potion need time to work?

Chocho expected an instant response but maybe a love potion wasn't instantaneous and needed a minute or two. Either that or she didn't do it right. The woman at the shop did say the crushed up purple powder was thought to be an aphrodisiac, not confirmed.

"Are you disappointed?" Mitsuki asked, seeing her expression.

"No, no. Not at all. Glad you like it." Chocho brushed it off and hoped it would take effect shortly.

"Don't I get one?" Boruto asked.

"Sorry," said Chocho. "I'm only giving chocolate to guys I consider manly."

"Hey!"

Sarada snickered.

"What's so funny?" Boruto spat.

"Oh, nothing," she answered. "But you really dodged a bullet, I'd say. Now you won't have to worry about giving her something in return. You're off the hook."

"I don't mind," said Mitsuki, knowing what Sarada was implying. "I can get Chocho something on White Day."

"Really?" Chocho wondered if this meant the potion was starting to take effect.

"Sure. I've never actually participated before. It could be fun."

Chocho grinned. "Great! Looking forward to it. I'll see you guys later."

She had three more chocolates to give out after all.

* * *

Sai started to stagger as he made his way closer to the Hokage building. His legs had suddenly become unsteady. When he found his footing again, his head started to spin.

"Why am I so dizzy all of a sudden?" he asked himself. "I was fine a second ago."

A rush of warmth spread through his entire body. A strong, unpleasant heat.

Finally, it simmered down and he felt much better.

"What was that? Am I getting sick or something?"

Composed, he started walking to the Hokage building again.

Then he stopped.

Sai stared up at the monument behind the Hokage building, focused on the newest carving.

"Naruto…"

Sai started to grin.

"That face in stone doesn't really suit you. But don't worry, Naruto. I'll make it better."

* * *

Who else would you like Chocho to give a chocolate to? Let me know and I'll see if I can make it happen.

Please review! ^-^


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

Shikadai leaned back on his hands, looking up at the sky. "You know, I thought us having the day off would be better than this."

For the last half hour, no one could decide what to do.

"They have lunch specials for Valentine's Day," offered Denki.

"It's too early for lunch."

"I'm sure those things are for couples anyway. There's no way I'm going anywhere near those places today."

Inojin sighed, leaning on his hand. "There's got to be something we can do."

"I want to stay out of the shopping area because of the holiday," said Iwabe. "It's going to be crazy."

"It's crazier on White Day because everyone's buying for girls."

"And that whole stupid unwritten rule about how it has to be two to three times the expense of the thing she gave you." Iwabe scoffed. "Who thought that rule up?"

"And what's the exchange on something like that anyway?" asked Denki. "If a girl makes you something, how can you possibly get her something worth twice that?"

"It's a dumb rule made to make guys frantic and get us all in trouble if we don't go all out on a girl, no matter what she gives you," said Shikadai. "If a girl has to look at a price tag in order to make sure it's worth twice what she gave, then it defeats the meaning of the gift."

"Unless the meaning was to make us feel terrible."

"Inojin's got it right," said Iwabe. "If a girl has to see the price tag to measure her worth then the whole holiday's just a load of crap."

"You want to talk troublesome," said Shikadai. "Chocho was hassling us about Valentine's Day. She brought up last year and made a huge deal out of it. It didn't bother her before but when the holiday came around this year, suddenly it was all she could talk about and made it our fault."

"Your fault for what?" asked Iwabe.

"Something stupid. I don't know. I think she was pissed because we stiffed her on White Day."

"Did she give you chocolate?" asked Denki.

"Well, yeah, but…"

"Then aren't you obligated to give her something?"

"Not all guys do, though. Only couples."

"Hey, last year we were all still at the academy," pointed out Iwabe. "You guys weren't teammates yet. If you had given her a gift, she might think you were accepting an invitation to go out with her or something."

"Exactly! Thank you!"

"At least she didn't give you anything this year," said Denki.

"Actually, she did." Shikadai pulled out the box from his bag.

"Seriously? After going on and on like that?"

"Is it poisoned?"

"I doubt it," said Inojin. "Chocho would never poison food. It's just not her."

Shikadai looked at the chocolate in his hand. "I bet she gave it to us to guilt trip us. That might also be why she went on and on before. She wanted to drive it home that she wanted something if she gave us something."

"You kind of have to now," said Denki.

"Why? Just because of some unwritten rule? A gift given just to repay a debt isn't a real gift. It has no meaning. I'm not giving her something that's so hollow even she would be able to see through it."

"You just don't want to go through the trouble," Iwabe teased.

Shikadai thrust the box out towards him. "Then you take it."

"Me? Why?"

"She gave it to me so I can do what I want with it. And this is better than throwing it away."

"She'd take offense to that anyway if she knew," commented Inojin.

"After all that talk about an empty gift, you're giving it to me?" Iwabe scoffed. "Come on."

"At least I'm not expecting anything in return. Just take it."

Iwabe took it. "You just don't want to go through the trouble of getting her a gift."

"Damn straight."

Denki pointed up the road from where they were sitting. "There's supposed to be something going on in the square right now if you guys want to check it out."

"I want to avoid the crowds, Denki."

"Don't worry. It's not a sale or anything. They're announcing something. I think it's a movie. They're premiering the trailer in the square real soon. Might be cool to see it on the big screen."

"Better than sitting around here doing nothing."

The boys walked to the busy area of the village where many villagers had their heads turned up, but not at the big television screens. They were staring at the monument.

"What the hell?"

The carving of Naruto's face had graffiti all over it, complete with several unflattering features scribbled over his mouth, ears and forehead.

"Who would do a prank like that?"

"Didn't Boruto do that a while back when all the Kages were meeting here in the village?"

"It was the one time and he hasn't done that since."

"There are other ways to get his old man's attention. It's probably someone else."

"Who else would do that and why? There are no meetings today, are there?"

"If there are, it's so secret even we don't know about it."

Shikadai frowned. This seemed like something Boruto would do but he hadn't done this sort of thing for quite some time. It must have been someone angry at the Hokage or a copycat trying to get Boruto in trouble.

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me."

"All over your face, Seventh."

"Should we haul Boruto in here?"

"No, no," answered Naruto. "We can't accuse him without proof. No one saw him do it and it's not that big a deal."

"Who's going to clean it?"

"It's not priority. Find somebody or locate the person who did it. I don't care right now."

The shinobi left the office and Naruto returned to the paperwork.

Shikamaru looked over at him. "You don't think it's Boruto's doing?"

"It's not fair to accuse him without proof. He hasn't done that sort of thing in a while. Don't see why he would suddenly go back to it, especially if there's not an important summit or something going on to embarrass me."

"It's Valentine's Day," said Shikamaru. "Could he be upset about that for some reason?"

"I don't see how. I'm even trying to get all this paperwork done so I can come home early tonight to spend it with them."

"Kind of hard to do when you gave a lot of people the day off today."

"I wanted them to enjoy the holiday."

"But that just adds to your workload. If you give everyone the day off, in order for the work to get done, you'd have to do it. I know you're trying to make people happy but you're just taking on more work and that means you will be leaving late yet again."

"I know, I know." Naruto didn't stop writing, trying to finish on time.

"Don't spread yourself too thin," Shikamaru warned.

"Don't worry," assured Naruto. "I stayed late yesterday to finish the stuff I needed to get done today so that's one less thing on my plate and I got a couple people handling the other stuff now that it has my signature. I just have to get through this pile and get to those two files and I'll be done."

In truth, Naruto was making good time. He might actually pull it off.

"And the graffiti?"

"It doesn't really matter. Someone will clean it."

Shikamaru sighed. "Defacing your monument. It was just your face, too. The others weren't touched. Hard not to think it's personal."

"If it is Boruto, it's more reason for me to get this work done." Naruto handed Shikamaru a folder. "These are taken care of. Would you mind?"

He took the papers. "I'm on it."

* * *

Please review! ^-^


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

Training was canceled on account of the holiday, so Boruto and his friends were trying to decide what to do. Curious to see what their sensei was up to, they went to his usual hangout and found him hanging out with his friends.

"Guess he doesn't have a date for Valentine's Day," said Boruto. "It would be weird if Big Bro had one, though, you know."

"Glad we ran into him," said Sarada. "I did make him something for Valentine's Day."

"Seriously?"

Sarada scoffed, turning away. "After all he does for us, and putting up with you, I think he deserves a little something, don't you?"

"I thought you were only supposed to give chocolates to boys you liked," said Mitsuki.

"You can give it to teammates, friends and lovers. He's our sensei. And since he can't expect something from you guys, it's up to me."

"Well, yeah. We're boys. Girls are supposed to give chocolate to guys," Boruto told her.

Sarada approached Konohamaru and handed him a plastic bag topped with a ribbon with chocolate dipped cookies inside. He seemed pleased with her gift and Moegi was already eyeing it hungrily. Konohamaru shielded it from her with his arms but she bluntly asked if he was willing to share with his closest friends.

"Ah…"

Boruto turned away from them to look at Mitsuki. "You ok?"

Mitsuki put a hand to his forehead. "I just felt a wave of dizziness hit me."

Boruto leaned closer to check on him. "Are you sick?"

"I don't think so. I came on so suddenly." He staggered for a moment then straightened up. "It's gone. I'm better now."

"You sure?"

Mitsuki looked up at him and nodded. "Yes. I'm alright."

Sarada returned and asked what was next. Boruto pointed across the street at a store advertising a promotion in honor of Valentine's Day.

"I don't know what it is but we should check it out."

"Alright."

Sarada entered the store first, holding the door open for Mitsuki. When he entered, he held it open for Boruto.

SLAM!

"Ow!" Boruto staggered back, holding his nose. The door just collided with his face.

Mitsuki opened the door and reached out to help Boruto inside. "Are you alright?"

"The door just hit me in the face."

"I'm sorry," Mitsuki apologized. "It got away from me. Just slipped right out of my hand."

Boruto pressed his hands to his face, wincing. It felt worse than the door simply hitting him. It slammed right into him. There was force behind it.

Maybe it was just a heavy door. Mitsuki seemed really concerned about him and it wasn't like him to slam the door on him on purpose.

The pain subsided and Boruto carefully entered the store to look around.

* * *

Naruto put another paper on the pile, sighing heavily. He smiled.

"I made a significant dent. This is great."

"Seventh!"

"Now what?"

The door flew open and Sai entered the room. "Seventh, there's a problem in the office down the hall. Please hurry."

Naruto and Shikamaru rushed out the door and followed Sai to a different room. The smell of singed wood alerted them to what was on the other side of the door before they opened it.

"Gah!" Naruto yelped, staring at the charred remains on a desk inside. "Those… Those are the papers I filed last night. I stayed up late to do them. What happened?"

"I don't know," said Sai. "I smelled something and came in here and found this."

"They were supposed to be filed and copied," Naruto whined. "I'll have to do them all over again. The whole document."

Shikamaru studied the desk closely. "Strange. These papers are the only ones damaged. Nothing else on this table was burned. Why is it confined to this one area?"

"Someone must have put down a cigarette without thinking and the documents caught on fire," reasoned Sai.

"There's no smoking in this building for that reason."

"Then somebody broke the rules. They're nowhere to be found, so obviously…"

"It's fine. It's fine," Naruto said, trying to keep it together. "I can draw them up again. I did it once. It shouldn't take me any longer to do them again."

"But this will set you back another couple hours," Shikamaru told him. "You're trying to get home early tonight."

"Then I better get started." Naruto hurried back to his office.

Shikamaru pointed at Sai. "Find out who did this and make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Can do."

* * *

Chocho looked at the three boxes of chocolate in her bag contemplating who she should give them to. Who would look good fawning over her for a day? She kept an eye out for a cute guy walking around but every time she spotted someone promising, he ended up with a girl on his arm, spoken for.

"This is hard. I want to make sure I like them enough to watch them drool over me. I wonder if Shikadai and Inojin have eaten their chocolates yet?"

She went over all the boys in her grade and their eligibility.

Not Metal. If he got nervous, he would end up breaking anything he was carrying. Having her hand crushed or him dropping plates of food intended for her was not something she wanted to experience. Iwabe wasn't very suitable either, but the idea of him having a big goofy smile on his face as he fell for her was appealing. Denki was a definite no, failing to see his manliness.

Boruto was right in front of her. Maybe she should have given him one when she gave a box to Mitsuki.

"No way," she told herself. "I stand by what I said before. He's not nearly cool enough to be an admirer of mine. I want someone more manly than him. It would just be too weird."

She tried to think outside the box a little.

Older men were more mature and manly. Perhaps finding someone a couple years older than her would be good. Too bad she didn't know anyone like that.

If she gave the chocolate to an adult, she might end up turning them into a pervert which certainly wasn't very appealing to her. Would it have the same effect on an adult? She didn't want to risk testing it just in case.

"So far things aren't going as I thought they would," she said to herself and sighed. "I pictured adoring fans gathered around me. Does it work slowly or something? If it takes time, how much time?"

Was it not what she thought it was? Maybe it wasn't the same kind of love she thought it would be. If she gave it to an adult, they might not look at her in the romantic sense but just baby her. That seemed nice but she still didn't want to risk it.

"Ugh!" She growled, slamming her hands on her knees. "What does it take to get some attention around here? Even Mitsuki was too shy about it. Shikadai and Inojin are the ones who should learn how to treat a lady but they didn't eat it right away. They must have by now. I better go check and see. Maybe I didn't put enough in the chocolate. In that case, I should save these last three and give it to them just to be sure."

She gathered her things and went to search for them.

* * *

Naruto found himself backed against a wall when several shinobi came into his office to complain about the chaos happening in the building.

"Someone misplaced the keys to the lab. How are we supposed to get to the samples?"

"Where are those documents? They are overdue."

"Some idiot jammed the door and now no one can use the main entrance."

"Who's responsible for this? These papers are ruined. How am I supposed to do my job with papers like this?"

"There's a mess on the main floor and all the mops went missing."

"That's hardly an issue for the Hokage. Seventh, take a look at this!"

"What about the complaints of the people on the east side? Have you handled those yet?"

"That can wait. What can't wait are the people meeting you in an hour."

"Impossible. I booked that room for a different meeting at the same time."

"According to this, the meeting was rescheduled to today in one hour."

"You double-booked? Seventh, what kind of oversight is this?"

Naruto waved his arms, raising his voice. "Enough! Everyone, calm down! I'll take care of it."

He managed to calm the crowd and shoved them out of his office. He slumped against the closed doors, moaning.

"This is insane," he said to Shikamaru. "How can so many things go wrong at once?"

"It's almost like someone's out to get you. Are you sure Boruto wouldn't..?"

"I doubt it. I'm trying to get home early today. Why would he sabotage that? It's what he wants. Aside from that, these are matters he wouldn't have knowledge of. Meetings and papers. How could he screw that up?"

"True."

Someone knocked on the door. "Seventh, there's still the matter of the graffiti on…"

"I don't care!" Naruto bellowed through the door. "There are more important things than the monument right now."

Had Naruto given too many people the day off? No, it wouldn't result in all this. This was deliberate.

"Alright," Naruto said taking a deep breath. "I can do this."

Shikamaru watched as four clones appeared in the office. Naruto gave each of them a task, instructing them to handle one thing at a time so everything would get back on schedule.

"Naruto, even at the rate you're going, you…"

"I know I'm spreading myself thin, but I've got to take care of this. Too many people are counting on me." Naruto opened the door and his clones scattered. "I only made four clones. They should last longer than they would if I made an army. While they're doing those things, I'll handle the rest. And so I don't hear about it anymore, could you take care of the graffiti?"

"Yeah, alright."

"Thanks, Shikamaru." Naruto hurried out of the office.

Even with his clones, Naruto was bombarded with people and questions while he zoomed around the building, taking care of as many things as he could.

"The documents on the maintenance of the footbridge near the water?"

"On my desk and ready for pickup."

"The east side is still waiting on your approval for construction."

"I drew up the document a second time and I have it right here. Take it."

"Waiting on the approval on the festivities for next month."

"I've approved of the shipment and have the paperwork right here for it. The rest is pending until later today but I do have the paperwork on the banners and where they will be placed throughout the village."

"Font included?"

"Yes. Along with it I also have confections for distributors and the location for the entertainment."

"And security?"

"I've approved of time off for the day and the list of names and duties of the ones who don't have off are on my desk. Top pile on the left."

"Thank you, Seventh."

"Naruto."

"What is it, Sai?"

"The meeting for the summer festival is happening now."

Naruto stopped walking. "Now? That was scheduled next week."

"Well, the proprietors and vendors are here to discuss location, materials, foods, entertainment and the like with you in the meeting room on the third floor. They want to make sure they all have the proper space so no one's arguing over who can put their stand where."

Naruto sighed. "Alright. I'll head there now."

* * *

Shikamaru climbed onto the stone monument to take a look at the graffiti. Everything was drawn in black paint. He sighed and started mapping out where he should start. It would be easier to get someone else to scrub it but it would take a while to round up people who weren't working to do the job. He really didn't want to do it himself but at this point he couldn't tell if finding people who weren't busy to do it would be any easier than cleaning it himself.

"Unbelievable," he muttered and stepped closer.

He stopped.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that the graffiti wasn't black paint at all. It was ink.

"Black ink? But who would..?" Shikamaru's eyes widened in shock. "No. There's no way it could be. But… Why would..?"

* * *

Naruto entered the meeting room. "There's no one here," Naruto announced.

"They're on their way," said Sai. "It's good that you're early. I'll take care of everything. Don't worry."

Naruto gave Sai a trusting smile. "Alright. Thanks, Sai."

"No problem." Sai closed the door. "No problem at all."

Sai slipped a key into the hole and locked Naruto inside. Twirling the key on his finger, Sai let it build up speed then soar across the hall and into a potted plant.

"Whoops." Sai smirked wickedly, chuckling to himself.

* * *

What could be happening?

Please review! ^-^


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

"Naruto?" Shikamaru called. "Naruto? Has anyone seen the Hokage?"

He raced up and down each hallway, searching for him. He kept calling his name but never got a response.

Finally, at the end of the hall, he saw the meeting room doors covered in graffiti and heard banging coming from the other side. In black ink was the image of an evil-looking fox and the words 'warning: tailed beast inside' scrawled across both doors in large letters.

A lump formed in Shikamaru's stomach at the sight of it.

"Let me out! Let me out!"

He could hear Naruto calling from inside, but the thick doors muffled his voice.

"Naruto?" Shikamaru started to approach then ducked in cover as the doors were torn from their frames and sailed by his shoulder.

Naruto landed in a heap on the floor, panting. Shikamaru rushed over to check on him.

"I've been calling for minutes. No one heard me. I couldn't open the door. I had no choice. I had to force my way out."

"How did you end up in there?" Shikamaru asked.

"Sai told me I had a meeting in this room."

"A meeting? Here? You have one on the second floor, not the third."

"What?!" Naruto hung his head. "Did he make a mistake and send me to the wrong place?"

"No," Shikamaru said grimly. "I think he did that on purpose."

Naruto looked at him. "What? Why would Sai..?"

He trailed off, seeing the door leaning against the wall with half an image of a fox snarling at him with massive fangs and wicked eyes. Naruto's face fell and the feelings of his childhood came rushing back.

A monster needed to be locked up.

"I think Sai was the one who defaced your monument."

Naruto looked at him. "I don't understand. Why would he do that?"

"The graffiti was done in ink. Sai's the only one I know who can do that and have access to that amount of it. Also, he was the one who alerted us to the burned documents. No one else was there and he came to show it to us. I think he's the one who did it."

"But why? He's one of my closest friends. Why would he do this?"

"I don't know. It's like he's going out of his way to make you miserable. I don't get why."

* * *

Sai let himself into Naruto's office and took a look around. "Aw, looks like you're doing very well today with the paperwork. Almost done." Sai ran his hands over the papers.

He knew Shikamaru and Naruto would be back soon. The thought of it made him smirk darkly.

He closed the door to the office and placed an exploding tag over it from the inside. Pleased with himself, Sai moved away to make his escape out the window.

"Ah, Naruto. My dear, sweet Naruto. My friend and teammate. I loathe you so much."

* * *

Shikamaru and Naruto returned to the office, still trying to make sense of the situation.

"There's no way Sai would do that. There's got to be a-"

Naruto saw something between the gap in the door when Shikamaru pushed it open. He grabbed his wrist and pulled him away just as an explosion tore apart the office from the inside. The sound acted as an alarm and several ninja showed up to see what happened.

They found Naruto and Shikamaru on the floor, holding each other protectively. The two ignored their barrage of questions and looked into the office.

The tag wasn't very powerful but if they had walked through the door as usual, it would have gone off inches from their heads and done some serious damage. Beyond the door just hanging from its hinges, every single paper had been blown off Naruto's desk and was now falling like snow around the room. Some had caught on fire and continued to burn slowly as they watched.

What made Naruto sick to his stomach was the message left in ink along the wall.

'Beware the tailed beast. Monsters deserve pain.'

Shikamaru looked at Naruto, unsure of what to say.

Naruto picked himself up and took a long look around his damaged office. The burnt papers, the broken glass from the window, the singed floor, broken doors and the hurtful message on the wall.

"Naruto…"

"He wouldn't do this."

Shikamaru stared at Naruto's back.

He turned around to make himself clearer. "Sai would not do this. Not the Sai I know," he said firmly. "Something's wrong with him. Either that or it's not him."

Shikamaru agreed.

Anyone else would have had their faith in their supposed friend shaken but not Naruto. He believed in his friends and the bonds he made. He knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that this was not Sai's doing.

"Find him and figure out what's happening."

"You got it."

* * *

Sarada eyed Mitsuki suspiciously.

Ever since they entered the shop earlier, weird things started happening to Boruto. They appeared to be accidents but it had been happening so consistently that it could no longer be considered mere accidents.

Boruto limped down the street, still recovering from having a heavy book fall on his foot and Mitsuki stepping on it as he walked by, repeatedly. He made sure to walk as far away from Mitsuki as possible.

Chocho spotted them and came over to see how Mitsuki was feeling after eating the chocolate a couple hours ago. He wasn't swooning at the sight of her, which made her think the batch she gave him was a dud.

"What happened to you?" she asked as soon as she saw Boruto.

"Don't ask."

"I know what will cheer you up. Some lunch. How about it?"

Boruto didn't decline. "Sure. At least I can get off my feet for a little while."

He chose the burger place again and on his way in, Mitsuki deliberately slammed the door in his face, giving a curt 'sorry' afterward. Everyone noticed but didn't say anything.

"Is he mad at Boruto for some reason?" Chocho whispered to Sarada.

"Don't know."

Boruto ordered his food and brought it back to the table, inhaling the delicious aroma. Before he could sit down to enjoy his meal, Mitsuki flipped the tray over with a flick of his hand and the food splattered all over Boruto's shirt and face.

"Hey!"

"Whoops."

Boruto slammed the empty tray on the edge of the table. "What is your problem?!" he shouted at Mitsuki.

"Faulting me for an accident? How crude of you."

"That was no accident!" Boruto spat. "Neither was the book on my foot, you stepping over me, you tripping me, the doors in my face or the bracelet you slipped into my pocket at the store so I'd look like I was shoplifting!"

"Mitsuki, if you have a problem with Boruto, just tell him," said Sarada. "Don't resort to such childish things. It's pathetic."

"What's pathetic is having a girl like you on our team," he remarked. "You show such little promise compared to others. There's nothing extraordinary about you. Your attitude is tiresome. You think you're so smart but the reality is that you actually don't know all that much at all. You're a know-it-all, plain and simple. Often times you just agree with our halfwit sensei just to make yourself look smarter than you really are. It's truly pathetic."

Sarada slammed her hands on the table between them to lean in his face. "What?!"

"Did I strike a nerve?" Mitsuki asked. "The truth is hard to hear, isn't it?"

"Mitsuki, that isn't fair," said Boruto. "Sure, she doesn't have a lot of our skills, but she's still useful and strong."

"If we ever need to shatter the earth to save a village, she'd be perfect for the job. But skills aren't her strong suit. Stick to opening pickle jars."

"Mitsuki, you jerk!" Sarada snapped at him. "What's gotten into you? Why are you saying this?"

"I figured you'd want the truth, since you asked. I'm just speaking honestly here." He folded his arms smugly. "You're not really of any use to us. You're pretty plain, in more ways than one."

Sarada's face started to turn red from anger. "Mitsuki, you…"

"Come on," he said with a wicked grin. "Your own father couldn't stand to be around you. Why do you think he's never in the village? Why you don't know him? He's clearly avoiding you. You're just that shameful. You're unwanted. An absolute waste."

Sarada froze, the color draining from her face. She couldn't move. She couldn't do anything.

Mitsuki leaned closer, elbows on the table. "Hard to argue with that, isn't it? Clearly you're not that special if you can be abandoned so easily. At such a young age, even he knew you lacked any redeeming qualities."

Boruto grabbed Mitsuki's shirt with both hands, hauling him out of the booth. "Take that back!"

Unfazed, Mitsuki smirked at him. "You know I'm right."

"That was extremely hurtful, Mitsuki. I can't believe you'd say something like that."

"Someone had to."

Boruto raised his fist to punch him.

"Typical. You have no argument, so you resort to violence. Very primitive."

Boruto took a swing at his head but a surge of electricity went through his entire body and he couldn't move. Every muscle in his body tensed and when it was over, his limbs didn't have the strength to support him or keep hold of Mitsuki and he slumped to his knees.

"Just as I thought," said Mitsuki. "If you weren't the son of the Hokage, you'd be nobody. That's the only thing special about you. You are just as pathetic, if not more so."

Mitsuki placed his foot on Boruto's shoulder to nudge him to the floor.

Sensing something, Mitsuki swiftly moved aside as Chocho tried to punch him with an enlarged fist. Keeping one hand on Sarada's shoulder to comfort her friend, she tried using the other one to teach Mitsuki a lesson. Her arm shrank back to normal size but she didn't stop glaring at him.

"I can't believe you, Mitsuki," she told him. "I thought you guys were really close. And to think I thought you had gotten manlier recently."

"I'm surprised you're able to think of something other than food, fatty."

Boruto tried to pull himself up. "You're never like this before. What happened? What changed?"

Mitsuki decided to help Boruto to his feet by grabbing a fistful of hair. He brought Boruto's face close to his and he hissed darkly, "I hate you. I hate you so much."

He threw Boruto to the ground and calmly walked out of the restaurant.

* * *

Please review! ^-^


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**

"I can't believe that jerk. What's wrong with him?"

Chocho continued to comfort Sarada after his personal verbal assault though she didn't seem as hurt as she was at the restaurant.

"If Boruto hadn't beaten me to it, I would have clobbered him good," Chocho announced, still angry. "How dare he speak that way to a lady. And to make it so personal like that."

"He's never done that before," Sarada admitted. "Something's up. Boruto, what did you do?"

Boruto spun around in the midst of pacing and muttering about Mitsuki to gape at her. "Me?!"

"Did you say something to get him upset? Did something happen between you two?"

"Why are you assuming it's my fault? You were with us all day. Did it look like anything happened?"

"I turned by back a couple times."

"I didn't do anything! I don't know why he's like this. He was fine this morning. Why do you think it was something I did?"

"Because he said he hated you."

"I didn't do anything!" Boruto insisted, throwing his hands in the air. "I don't know why he's so pissed off. It wasn't my fault."

Chocho scoffed, thinking about Mitsuki's behavior. "He doesn't deserve my chocolate. I regret ever giving it to him. Still, I wonder why he isn't all lovey-dovey like I expected him to be."

Boruto looked at her. "Why would he be lovey-dovey? Just because you gave him chocolate?"

"Well, my chocolate gift was special. I mixed it with a love potion."

"You what?" Boruto and Sarada said at once.

"Yeah. I added a love potion to the chocolate I gave him."

Boruto was skeptical. "Does such a thing actually exist? It would be cool if it did, but I don't know."

"Are you sure it's a love potion?" Sarada asked. "Where'd you get it?"

"I made it. It's not like I got it from a creepy old witch or something. Here, look." Chocho pulled out the book and bottle from her bag. She had marked the pages she used so it was easy to find her sources.

"A love potion, huh?" Sarada started going through the book, comparing the bottle of purple powder to the image in the book and the herb Chocho had gathered which she had left stuck between two pages.

"There's an actual love potion, for real?" Boruto leaned closer. "That book tells you how to make it?"

"Not exactly," explained Chocho. "I had to whip it up myself based on what I found in this book. It tells you about different plants and their properties. That bottle there is a ground up plant thought to be an aphrodisiac and I combined it with that plant there that's supposed to make the effects stronger. I mixed them together and added them to the chocolate I made here."

She took out a small box from her bag containing the chocolate.

"Now I'm glad you didn't give me one," said Boruto.

"I still don't understand why it didn't work." Chocho sighed. "I had it all planned out, too. But guys aren't falling at my feet like I expected."

Sarada's eyed widened, staring at the book. "Uh, Chocho, I don't think you did this right."

"Obviously, if it's not working," said Boruto.

"No, idiot, I mean she really didn't do it right."

They moved closer to look at the page Sarada was scanning. She held it up to show them along with the bottle and plant.

"Chocho, you weren't supposed to mix these with anything else."

"I didn't. I just mixed those two things."

"But then you added them to the chocolate mixture, right? That's mixing them with something else. The combination didn't result in a love potion."

"Aw, well, that sucks." Chocho sighed, disappointed.

Her nonchalant response didn't match the look of fear on Sarada's face. As soon as she realized things were more serious than a simple mistake resulting in a dud, her expression changed.

"Chocho, you didn't make a love potion. You made a love poison."

"Poison?" Chocho recoiled. "I poisoned them? But- but those things in the book aren't poisonous. Do they become poisonous when combined with chocolate or something?"

"Not exactly."

The book had limited information on these particular plants but Sarada was familiar with some of the facts after studying a herbology book.

Despite Inojin's parents owning a flower shop, he actually didn't have his mother's vast knowledge of flowers and needed help understanding certain plants, so Sarada took out a book on the subject to help him. She ended up learning a lot, probably more than Inojin. The book covered more than just flowers. It focused on herbs, too, and what ones should never be combined with certain things.

Normally consuming the plants Chocho had gathered wouldn't result in anything bad, but when she introduced them to ingredients not found or obtained easily in nature near their native habitat, it had some pretty interesting if not catastrophic results.

"Chocho, the ingredients you used in the chocolate shouldn't be combined with these two things here. They reacted to each other and resulted in a love poison. Based on this information and what I know about these things, instead of giving someone the feeling of being in love, the blend targets the feelings someone already has and corrupts them."

"In other words..?"

"In other words, it turns love to hate," Sarada explained. "That's what a love poison is. It takes someone's feelings of love and turns it into hate."

"So that's why Mitsuki is acting this way."

Boruto cringed. "Wait, so if it targets someone's love and turned it to hate then… Does that mean Mitsuki loves me? Gross."

"You moron, there are different kinds of love," Sarada told him. "You love your mom and sister but not romantically, right?"

"Well, yeah. Of course."

"Love can exist between siblings, parent and child, owner and pet, teammates, friends, and lovers. Not all those are romantic forms, though. But I don't think a love poison can tell the difference or cares. It targets love, any kind of love and turns it to hate."

"Then we've got to stop Mitsuki." Boruto punched his palm, getting serious. "We'll grab him and stop him before he can do more damage."

"And then what?" Sarada asked. "We have no idea how to fix this. Catching him won't matter if we don't have a cure. We should focus on getting a cure first. Otherwise, even if we do catch him, he could escape and then we'll have to catch him again and that would waste time."

"But while we're trying to figure out how to fix this, he could be doing who knows what in the village? It makes more sense to find him first then a cure, you know."

Chocho suddenly shrieked, cupping her hands to her face. "Oh, no! Inojin and Shikadai! I gave them chocolates, too!"

"Mitsuki's not the only one?"

"No. I gave it to them first."

"Who knows what they're doing?" asked Sarada.

Knowing Mitsuki wasn't the only one who consumed the love poison, it now made more sense to round up everyone who ate it and then worry about a cure. No good could come from several people in that state running loose in the village.

"Let's find those two and immobilize them," said Sarada, unintentionally siding with Boruto. "We can't have them running loose, doing who knows what."

Chocho's teammates were easy to find, walking side by side down a quiet street. Boruto leapt right into action with his clones, tackling and pinning the unsuspecting duo from above.

"Ow! Boruto, what are you doing?"

"Sit still, Shikadai. We'll help you out."

Shikadai twisted his body, trying to look at Boruto who was pressing his knees into Shikadai's back. "Help me? I was just fine until you dropped from the sky and tackled me. What's this about?"

Inojin writhed on the ground, trying to get his arms free from the two clones holding him down. "Why are you doing this? What's going on?"

"I know you two hate me right now, but we can fix that."

"You're damn right I hate you right now." Shikadai tried to buck him off his back. "What's your problem?"

"Just hold still."

POOF!

Shikadai vanished and reappeared a few feet away, using an escape jutsu. Boruto was able to pin him down but he neglected to secure his friend's hands. It was painful, but he managed to make the necessary hand signs to get away.

Boruto tried to grab Shikadai but found himself frozen in place, their shadows connected.

"Now," Shikadai began calmly, "what's this about? Why do you think I need you to tackle me to the ground to help me?"

"Because of the chocolate you ate," Boruto told him.

"What chocolate?"

"The one I gave you guys this morning," said Chocho, catching up with Sarada in tow. "Remember? The Valentine's chocolate."

"That?" Shikadai raised his brow. "I didn't eat it."

"You didn't?"

"No."

"Me neither," said Inojin, still pinned under the two clones. "I didn't really want it anyway."

"So… Wait, what?"

The clones vanished and the shadow holding Boruto shrank back. Now that everything was calm, the group tried to sort out all the details.

"You gave us a love potion?"

"Love poison, actually. My mistake."

Shikadai crossed his arms, glaring at his teammate. "Why the hell would you do that?"

"Because I was sick and tired of you two ignoring me. When a lady puts her heart into something she made by hand, she expects gratitude. And when she's told she'll be overlooked no matter what she does, it's understandable that she'd naturally try to get the attention she feels she deserves."

"By poisoning us?"

"I didn't know at the time!"

"How did you even make such a thing anyway?" Inojin asked.

Chocho showed them the book which Shikadai took to study more closely.

"Either way, I'm glad you guys didn't eat any of it," said Boruto. "So why don't you hand over the chocolate she gave you and we'll get rid of it before it can do any damage?

"I don't have it."

"Me neither."

"Where is it?"

Inojin gave them a frightened look and timidly said, "I gave it to my mom."

"You what?!"

"I didn't know and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Mom likes chocolate, so I left it on the table for her."

"You gave the chocolate gift I made for you to your mom?" Chocho growled. "You didn't even taste it? You just gave it away?"

"It's a good thing I didn't eat it, knowing what I know now!"

"Is this really the time to focus on that?" Sarada asked Chocho. "We've got to go get that chocolate. With any luck, she hasn't eaten it yet."

"And if she has…" Inojin shuttered, thinking of his mother in her worst moods. If that was how she looked when she loved him and merely lost her temper, he didn't want to know how scary she was when she hated someone.

The group raced to Inojin's house as fast as they could. Something stopped Inojin from opening the front door, petrified.

"What's wrong?"

Inojin gulped, sensing malice coming from inside. Moments later, they heard banging and yelling.

With Inojin too terrified to open the door, Boruto did it for him without knowing what to expect.

A vase came flying at his head from inside. He ducked and when he looked inside, he found Ino backed against the wall looking frightened. Sai had thrown the vase, aiming for her.

"Dad?"

"Have you lost it?" Ino asked, regaining some of her courage after the initial shock.

"The only thing I've lost is my self-respect. Gave that up when I married you."

"What did you say?" Ino took a step forward, outraged.

"Everything about you sickens me," Sai seethed through his teeth. "I can't even look at the color purple without thinking of you. Do you even own another color? Everything is purple with you! You look like a fat plum!"

"How dare you!"

"You never cover up! You show off your stomach and dress like a slut! A married mother should dress more conservatively, don't you think? Who are you trying to impress? Still looking to catch a man even now?!"

"Dad, stop!" Inojin shouted into the house from the front door. "You don't know what you're saying!"

The look on Sai's face was terrifying. He had never seen his father with such an expression. Such hatred. Such malice.

Sai grit his teeth, rubbing his arms with his hands. "Everything about you, even the thought of you, the sight of you makes me feel dirty, you wretch. You try so hard to make yourself beautiful because you know you can never attain it. Filth wearing makeup is still filth!"

The things he was saying and how he said them left Ino stuck between rage and shock. Sai had never spoken to her like this before. He had never done anything like this before. At any other time, she would have thrown a punch but at the moment she didn't know what to do. His words were so hateful and cut deeply.

"I can't stand you. You are nothing to me. I hate you!" Sai bent his knees and sprang into the air, launching himself at his wife. "I hate you, you horrible, hideous harpy!"

Boruto threw himself and two clones between them and tried to restrain Sai before he could hurt Ino. Sai slammed himself into the wall, successfully getting rid of the clone on his back. The other one he kicked off his leg and the third he grabbed by the neck and threw into the wall.

POOF!

Sai stared at the empty space in his hand and quickly spun to the right, elbowing Boruto in the chest as he tried to sneak up from behind.

"The same trick as your father," he seethed. "You're no different from him. You're just as irritating and predictable."

Ino watched Boruto and her husband fight in the hallway, still stunned by the whole ordeal. Then she shook herself and prepared to get involved in the battle.

"I'll stop his movements first." Ino raised her hands, preparing her jutsu.

"Mom, wait!" Inojin grabbed his mother's arm, pulling her hands down. "It's not his fault. He's been poisoned."

"Poison?" Ino was even more shocked and worried.

Boruto was thrown into the wall and quickly moved aside to avoid being punched. "He's right. Sai doesn't know what he's doing. He accidently ate a love poison." He jumped again, narrowly missing Sai's kick this time.

"What's this about a love poison?"

"It turns love to hate, Mom. Basically, the more you love somebody, the stronger the hate's going to be."

Ino couldn't help but he flattered that Sai cared so much about her, but at the same time she knew she had to get him back to normal. The problem was, if this wasn't a genjutsu, she couldn't snap him out of it.

"How long before it wears off or does it?" she asked her son.

"I don't know. I don't know if it will wear off."

"He's erratic," commented Sarada as she observed Sai's fight with Boruto. "It seems the longer he's under its influence, the worse it is."

It was both good and bad. On the one hand it meant the feelings of hate would only get stronger, making matters worse. On the other, not being in their right minds made them vulnerable. If Sai was fighting erratically, it left him open to a counter attack, which was good news for the Genin. Together, they might be able to take on someone as strong as Sai.

Sai threw Boruto to the ground and wrapped his hands around his neck. "I can't stand the sight of you. I can't stand you! I hate you! I hate you!"

Boruto clawed at Sai's hands, gasping for air.

"Naruto loves you so much. I can only imagine his anguish when I get rid of you." Sai licked his lips, savoring the thought. "You remind me so much of him. That face, those eyes, that hair. I'll get rid of you! I'll destroy you!"

Sai's hands started to unfurl from Boruto's neck. Something was pulling him away.

"What's this? What's happening?"

He couldn't move his body, which could only mean one thing.

Shikadai was fighting hard to restrain Sai with his shadow but Sai's power was immense.

"Jeez, he really wants to kill you," Shikadai groaned, fighting to hold on. "I don't think I can keep him back much longer."

Boruto crawled out from under Sai, coughing as air returned to his lungs. Rather than get near him, Boruto moved as far away as he could, seeing Sai fight to free himself.

It was true. Shikadai couldn't hold him for very long. Sai was pulling against him and Shikadai was breaking a sweat.

"He's too strong! I can't-"

The jutsu broke and Sai lurched forward dramatically, having been resisting as hard as he was. Sai spun around and threw himself towards the door where Ino was standing with their son. He attempted to grab her but something grabbed him instead.

A giant fist wrapped around Sai's body and held him. Chocho stood beside Shikadai, waiting for an opening to use her jutsu.

"Make it quick," she warned. "I can't hold him forever."

This was worse than they thought. Boruto and Sarada figured they could simply tie up those affected by the poison and leave them somewhere while they worked on a cure. Now that they knew someone stronger and more skilled than a Genin was affected, it meant they had to change their plans.

They couldn't possibly restrain Sai for that length of time, plus the poison seemed to tap into his adrenaline, making him stronger than usual. He wasn't going to stop. They also had no idea if Ino could use her jutsu on him safely or if it would do anything at all.

"How do we fix this?" Sarada asked, desperately. "If we can get a bunch of Jonin to restrain him…"

"If we cure him, we won't have to worry about that."

"But how?" she asked. "How do we cure this?"

Inojin had an idea. "What if it's like those fairytales and a kiss of true love will break it?"

"I doubt that. It turns love to hate. A kiss might make it worse."

"Then… What about appealing to his emotion? A symbol of some sort. Oh, I know!"

Inojin ran into his house and came back a minute later with an old drawing. He held it out to his father.

"Remember when I drew this, Dad? You were so happy and proud of me. See?"

Sai looked at the family portrait Inojin had made years ago. How he hoped his father would like it and stood fidgeting nervously like his mother, waiting for approval. Sai had taken the drawing in both hands and smiled, deeply touched and proud. It made him so happy.

That was then, but now…

Sai tried to spit on the drawing but Inojin moved it aside just in time.

"Go rot somewhere, you little brat!" he snarled. "And put that trash where it belongs, cur!"

Inojin lowered the drawing and backed away. "I really thought if I could remind him…"

Ino stood in front of her husband. "That's enough," she said firmly. "How dare you speak that way to our son."

Sai scoffed. "It's not like I wanted him."

Ino grit her teeth, growling. "Why, you..."

"You know he doesn't mean it, Mom. It's the poison talking."

Regardless, Ino slapped Sai across the face.

"Mom!"

Ino stood back, satisfied. "He probably just needed a good smack to get him back to his sense."

Sai narrowed his eyes at her and snarled, "Hideous harp."

"Don't tell me he's stuck like this," Boruto said, unable to see how they could possibly get him back to normal. "Tell me it wears off or something."

"I don't know. I just combined it with the chocolate. I don't know if there is a cure." Chocho winced. "But I know I can't hold him all day. Someone has to do something."

Shikadai pulled out the book from his pocket to go over it again.

"This attitude is nothing like the sweet Sai I know," said Ino. "How did this happen again? He took poison by mistake? How?"

"It's a long story, Mom."

"Maybe we should punch him in the stomach really hard," suggested Boruto. "Make him throw it up. That should get him back to normal."

"If he ate it this morning, he's probably digested it by now," said Sarada.

Shikadai slammed the book shut. "I think I got it."

"Got what?"

"Just a sec." Shikadai ran into the house and started rummaging round the kitchen. He returned shortly with something in his hand. "Open his mouth."

"What?"

"Do it."

It was like forcing an animal to open its jaws. Sai twisted and turned and tried to bite them. Shikadai only got a clear shot when Sai opened wide enough to let out a few insults and he threw something down his throat.

Sai started coughing, trying to get it out but he had already swallowed it. Whatever it was, it was small; about the size of a pill.

Shikadai stepped back and waited. "I don't know how long this will take. I don't know how long it took for the chocolate thing to take effect."

"I don't think it was right away but soon enough. When did..?"

Sai started to squirm and moan, shutting his eyes tight. "Let go of me. I'm going to be sick."

Fearing he would vomit on her, Chocho released Sai and her arm shrank back to normal.

Sai doubled over on the ground. When they leaned forward to see if he was alright, Sai sprang up fighting.

"I can't believe you actually fell for that," he mocked. Sai started to reach for his kunai.

Everyone braced themselves for a fight. Ino stepped in front of Inojin with her fists raised.

Sai didn't draw his blade. His hand merely hovered over it while he looked at the ground, dazed.

He looked around, his usual calm expression taking the place of the twisted wickedness he displayed before. His eyes moved from one to the next. When his eyes fell on Ino, he spoke.

"Ino? What's going on? Why are you..?" Sai looked over his shoulder to see if there was anything behind him. Finding nothing, he looked back at her. "What's everyone doing?"

She lowered her fists. "Sai, are you ok?"

He nodded. "Yeah. A little dizzy, but I'm fine. What happened?"

Overjoyed, she threw her arms around Sai in a hug. She pulled away and looked him in the eye, checking to make sure it was really him and not an act. "Thank goodness you're ok."

"Did something happen to me? Why would I..?" Sai glanced around. "Is everything alright? I don't understand."

"Don't you remember anything?"

"Dad, did you eat some chocolate on the kitchen table today?"

"Huh? Yes, I did. I thought Ino made it for me for valentine's Day. I ate it before I left for work." Sai rubbed his temple, looking puzzled. "Come to think of it, I'm not really sure what happened. I started to feel strange when I got to the Hokage building and after that the day's just been a big haze."

"It worked. He's back to normal." Boruto looked over at Shikadai. "Whatever you gave him worked."

"What did you give him anyway?" asked Sarada.

Shikadai gave a simple but surprising answer. "Salt."

"Salt?"

"Yeah. I think those plants reacted to the sugar in the chocolate, so I figured introducing the opposite would reverse the effects. The opposite of love is hate, and the opposite of sweet is salty. Therefore, salt is the cure."

Everyone looked at each other in amazement. It seemed the cure was even simpler than they thought. They didn't have to make another potion. They just had to feed the victims salt to reverse the effects.

"That's amazing."

"Alright," said Boruto, gaining everyone's attention. "Now that we know salt is the cure, we can get Mitsuki back to normal."

"But what about the other people who ate the chocolate?" asked Chocho.

"Well, you only gave it to us and Mitsuki, right?" Inojin asked.

Chocho looked away. "Uh…"

"You did just give it to us, right?"

"Actually…" She avoided looking at them. "I did give someone else some chocolate."

"And I gave mine to someone else," confessed Shikadai.

"Pleased don't tell me it was your mom."

"No. I gave mine to Iwabe."

Sarada and Boruto both facepalmed.

* * *

Please review! ^-^


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7:**

"Just how much chocolate did you give out?" Shikadai asked Chocho.

"The batch made six but I only gave out five. I gave one to Mitsuki and one to each of you."

"I gave mine to Iwabe and Inojin's dad ate his. But that's two unaccounted for. Where are the other two?"

Chocho pointed. "I felt bad for Shino-sensei, so I decided to give one to him."

"Why?"

"Because the guy has zero love life and I figured in the spirit of the holiday, he should find love at least once."

Inojin raised his brow at Chocho. Knowing she had already gone to the school, he suspected Shino wasn't the only instructor she unintentionally poisoned. "Let me guess. You gave one to Anko, too."

"No," said Chocho, looking at him as if he had said something incredibly stupid. "Toying with a woman's heart is so uncool. That's why I only gave it to guys."

"Plus, in the spirit of the holiday, only guys are supposed to receive chocolate."

Chocho frowned. "While that's the tradition, I see no reason why a girl can't enjoy chocolate on Valentine's Day. I ignore any rule that deprives a woman of something she wants."

"You ignore at lot more than that, Chubs."

"I could say the same thing about you!"

Sarada intervened. "Guys! This isn't helping." Focus back on her, she continued. "Look, we already know Mitsuki ate it. We saw him. But we don't know if Iwabe or Shino-sensei ate theirs. I say we find them first and take the chocolate back before they have a chance. We'll worry about Mitsuki later."

"Good thinking," said Shikadai. "If we can prevent more people from going nuts, I'm all for it. It would be troublesome otherwise."

"But that's still one unaccounted for," commented Inojin. "Where's the last one?"

"I gave it to the cute delivery guy," said Chocho. "I know it's his job to deliver food and everything, but maybe if he fell in love with me, I'd get my food faster or even some extra."

Everyone just stared at her.

"We'll worry about those ones later. For now, let's just go to the school and check on Shino-sensei," said Boruto. "If Shino-sensei eats it, that's really bad. He's pretty scary when he gets serious."

Boruto led the group to the school in the hopes Shino would be there. He charged inside first along with Chocho, but Sarada grabbed Inojin and Shiakdai, preventing them from going inside.

"What?" Shikadai asked, annoyed. "Aren't we wasting time?"

Sarada gave him a hard look. "You know this is all your fault, right?"

"My fault?" Shikadai twisted his arm free and glared at her. "I didn't tell her to make a love potion."

"But you prompted her to do it. If you two hadn't been such jerks, she wouldn't have considered doing this." Sarada had to stand up for her friend and tell them off at the same time. "You guys really hurt her and you haven't even apologized."

"What did we do?" Inojin asked.

"She's talking about the White Day thing," responded Shikadai. He looked back at Sarada. "We gave her an honest answer up front. She asked us and we said what we said. What's the problem?"

"You guys really don't get it, do you?" Sarada was baffled by their ignorance.

"I'm not going to give her something just because I'm obligated. I didn't ask for any gift, so why should I give her one just because she did? Suddenly I owe her?"

"It is only fair," said Inojin. "But I have to agree that it is a stupid rule."

"She gave you guys something last year and then you stiffed her on White Day," Sarada summarized. "This year, she asked if she should waste her time making you something even if you're not going to reciprocate like before."

"And?"

"And you don't see how you offended her?"

"I'm not going to give her something because it's expected and lead her on," answered Shikadai.

Sarada gawked at him. "What? What are you talking about?"

"It's the social protocol," explained Shikadai. "And a troublesome one at that. The object of both holidays is set to work together. That's part of why they're exactly a month apart. Girls give guys chocolate on Valentine's Day as a form of invitation. Guys are then obligated to respond on White Day, thus, accepting the invitation."

Sarada's shoulders fell. "What the hell are you saying?"

Shikadai groaned. "It's so obvious. The chocolate represents a girl asking the guy to be her boyfriend. If the guy gives her something on White Day, it's the same as saying yes. By giving Chocho a gift, I'm basically telling her I'm interested. Which I'm not! That's why I refuse to give her something just because it's expected."

Sarada was finally getting Shikadai's side of things. Now she knew that he felt reciprocating would lead Chocho to think he was romantically interested in her, so he felt giving her nothing would prevent any sort of confusion. Unfortunately, he ended up hurting her feelings in a slightly different way.

"How can someone as smart as you be so dense?" Sarada said in disbelief.

"What?" Shikadai asked, not understanding why she thought he was missing the mark. As far as he was concerned, he was dead on and his actions made complete sense.

"Children give their parents chocolate on Valentine's Day. It's not just for lovers."

"But she-"

"Listen, you two," Sarada said firmly. "She gave everyone chocolate last year when we were all still at the academy. Even to Shino-sensei. You really think she had any romantic interest in him?"

"No, that would be weird," said Inojin.

"Shino-sensei also didn't give her anything a month later, supporting my point," added Shikadai.

"But chocolate is given to anyone as a gesture of appreciation," Sarada explained. "Coworkers, friends, teammates. Don't you get it?"

"But like you said, we weren't teammates a year ago," pointed out Inojin.

"Which is why it hurt her so much this year when she asked if she should waste her time doing something nice for her teammates and you tell her no before she even got a chance."

"We were just being honest," said Inojin. "Isn't it better we tell her ahead of time so she doesn't go through all that trouble?"

"You two refused a gift she wanted to give to you. Don't you know how that feels?"

"But about leading her on like Shikadai said…"

"It wasn't because she had romantic feelings for either of you," said Sarada. "She was just doing something nice for her friends. And now that you are teammates, she wanted to show you guys that she cares about you."

Shikadai then muttered, "It deprives a gift of its meaning if it's given out of expectancy. I shouldn't be under obligation to give her something just because she did."

"Right," said Sarada. "It should be given to show someone that they're appreciated."

Shikadai and Inojin glanced up at her.

"Chocho wanted to show you guys, her teammates, that she appreciates you. That she cares about you. That you are friends who can trust and rely on each other. To show her gratitude for having you guys with her." Sarada threw her hands in the air, stepping back. "And you didn't want to return the gesture. At least now she knows where she stands. How little you guys think of her."

Reality sank in for the two boys.

Shikadai was so hung up on the romantic aspect of the holiday that he completely overlooked the meaning behind the gesture. Overall, it was to show that they cared.

By refusing to give her something, and even telling her flat out not to bother expecting anything from either of them, it was the same as telling her that they didn't care. That they didn't appreciate her.

No wonder she was hurt.

Shikadai and Inojin both felt that giving her something would send the wrong idea and thought it would be better to just ignore her. It was intended to save her feelings and not lead her to think they wanted to be more than friends, but instead they left her thinking they didn't care about her at all.

"Aw, man," Shikadai said, finally getting it. "I screwed up."

"I didn't even consider she'd think we didn't care about her at all. I didn't think we'd hurt her feelings that bad."

The fact that Chocho would go so far as to make a love potion just to feel appreciated showed them how deeply they hurt her.

Neither could condone what she did, but they understood it better now. She just wanted the attention she thought she would never get otherwise.

"She's right," said Inojin to Shikadai. "We pushed her to this, didn't we?"

"Chocho did something really stupid and troublesome, but I get it." Shikadai sighed. "Alright, we both screwed up. We'll make it up to her somehow."

"We can start with apologizing," suggested Inojin. "Right after we help clean this up first."

Shikadai nodded. "We sort of had a hand in this, too, so we should help her make things right."

The trio hurried inside to help Chocho and Boruto.

* * *

Please review! ^-^


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:**

Unable to find Shino or the chocolate in the classroom, Boruto and Chocho went to the teacher's office to look. There they found Shino at his desk with the chocolate resting on top of the papers he was grading.

"I can grab it easy," said Boruto.

He crawled behind Shino's chair and reached to get it.

"What are you doing?" Shino asked without turning around.

Boruto pulled his arm back and tucked himself into a ball.

Shino peered down at him. "Boruto? What are you doing?"

He knew there was no point in trying to hide or sneak away. He stood up and got right to the point. "Uh… That box on your desk. Can I have it?"

Shino looked behind him and back at Boruto. He picked it up and handed it to him. "This?"

Boruto snatched it away. "Yes! Thank you." He showed it to Chocho. "This is it, right?"

She hurried over and checked the box. "Everything looks intact."

"I haven't gotten to it yet," Shino confessed. "Is there a problem?"

Both Boruto and Chocho breathed a sigh of relief.

"We just had to make sure you didn't eat any of this," said Boruto. "It was accidently poisoned."

Chocho smacked him. "Don't tell him that!"

"Poison?" Shino straightened up in his chair. "What kind of poison?"

"It's not important. We're handling it."

"My insects can break down many kinds of poison, so I probably would have been fine. What I want to know is how this happened."

Boruto didn't want to involve any of the adults, keen on doing this with his friends since they had a better understanding of it and a reluctance to get in trouble, so he just grinned and insisted everything was under control.

Shino wasn't having any of it. "If there's a problem, then I need to be informed so I can…"

Shikadai rushed into the office and wedged himself between Shino and his friends. "We were trying to be discreet," he told Shino. "Turns out this was intended for someone else and Chocho got embarrassed. I told Boruto it would be stupid to say it was poisoned but he thought it was the best way to get you to give it back without a fuss."

The clever lie seemed to work as Shino relaxed a little, scanning the faces of his students. Since Boruto was the one who said it was poisoned and Chocho scolded him for saying that and how she seemed relieved to find that the chocolate hadn't been eaten, Shino decided to believe it. It did make the most sense.

Relieved they managed to prevent someone from eating the chocolate, the group left the school to search for the remaining two, hoping it would be just as easy.

* * *

It was so much fun to harass Boruto all morning. Watching his pain and misery brought Mitsuki such joy. It was so amusing to watch his teammate scream and get flustered.

Musing over the malice he carried for both his teammates brought words of such loathing and hurt to his lips. Their reactions to his contempt and honest lust for verbal and psychological torture was his way of finding twisted pleasure and venting his disdain for the two of them.

He wanted them to know just how little he thought of them. How pathetic and idiotic and irritating they were.

Having vented such things helped at the moment but now he was left with the heat of his hatred searing into his flesh.

He wasn't satisfied. Not in the slightest.

Their faces, their voices, the knowledge they would still be on the same team even after being insulted so highly.

The pain and inconveniences along with the insults weren't enough the slate is scorn. He had to do more.

"I hate him. I hate him." Mitsuki could feel his body heating up, every muscle in his body tense as he thought of them. "I hate him so much. I can't stand him. I hate him."

He would never be satisfied until Boruto was erased from this world. He had to be the one to do it. Letting someone else do it for him would leave him unsatisfied. Only by going after Boruto himself could he be gratified.

* * *

After leaving the school, the group thought it would be best to look for the delivery boy before going after Iwabe. Boruto suggested they split up to look for both at the same time but a noise distracted them.

A teenager was in a shouting match with his employer in the middle of the street. The adult was trying to calm him down but the more the boy shouted, the shorter the adult's temper became.

"That's him," said Chocho, pointing. "That's the delivery boy I gave the chocolate to."

"I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say he ate it."

"We just have to get him to eat salt, right?" asked Boruto.

"I don't get why it's salt that reverses it," said Inojin. "Wouldn't something bitter also work? I mean, if we're talking opposites."

"Never mind that right now," said Sarada. "We can grab some salt from inside that restaurant."

"Way ahead of you," said Shikadai, holding something up. "I snagged this from your place, Inojin. They're salt tablets. I figured your mom wouldn't mind too much."

He poured the contents of the small bottle into his hand to count how many they had. There were only five in the bottle. They could make do with that amount.

"Should we hold him down and shove it down his throat?" Boruto asked, getting ready for a fight with the delivery boy.

"He's not a shinobi, so we have to be careful not to hurt him too much," said Shikadai. "On the other hand, he's probably irrational. We need to be careful, Boruto."

Figuring a civilian would be easy to overpower, Boruto took charge and ordered everyone to tackle the teen and pry open his mouth. Unfortunately, he was the only one to do it. Everyone else stood by to form a plan.

Boruto tackled the boy around the middle which was only powerful enough to knock him off balance and into the wall. He grabbed the back of Boruto's jacket and flung him to the ground one-handed.

"Just as I thought," said Sarada, watching. "With that kind of rage, he's bound to be stronger than usual and easily riled into a frenzy. That's why we need to form a plan before attacking."

Rolling his eyes, Shikadai tried to think of a solution that would be simple and easy. The only thing throwing him off was the teen's unpredictability. Even an enemy he's never faced before could be figured out because they were rational. If the teen was going to behave like a wild animal, it might be best to treat him like one.

"Don't you walk away from me!" the teen shouted at his boss who tried to retreat into the restaurant. "We're not done!"

Boruto grabbed the boy's ankle to hold him back but the boy kicked him and stormed into the restaurant.

More shouting ensued, then clattering. Boruto raced to the door to find the teen throwing things at his boss and shouting nonsense.

Worried the teen might go for one of the utensils next, Boruto pushed his way inside past the other employees standing around gawking and pulled the teen back with both hands.

"Snap out of it!" Boruto shouted. "This isn't you!"

"Screw you, brat!" He took a swing at Boruto's head but he climbed up the boy's back and straddled his shoulders. He claws at Boruto's legs but couldn't pull him off.

"Boruto!" Shikadai shouted from the door and threw the bottle of salt tablets to him.

Knowing they might need the rest, Boruto caught the bottle one-handed and took out one tablet. He tried to get it in the boy's mouth but he kept moving. He finally managed to get it in his mouth, nearly getting bitten in the process.

Rather than swallow it, the teen spat it out and twisted his body, ramming Boruto and himself into the wall behind.

Boruto took out another tablet.

The teen willingly threw himself on the floor, successfully throwing Boruto off. The teen grabbed a pan from the counter and tried to beat Boruto over the head with it. His boss stopped him but that only enraged him further.

The boy stood and punched the man in the stomach, took the pan into his other hand and clubbed him over the head with it.

The other employees flooded the kitchen, grabbing the teen in an effort to stop the fight. With so many people in the cramped kitchen, Boruto was nearly trampled. He curled into a ball and rolled under a table. From there he crawled until there was space enough to move.

A girl was thrown to the ground and another was ripped away by her hair and tossed aside. Two boys were still trying to hold the teen back but they were getting overpowered as well.

Boruto couldn't get a clear shot for an attack or to get the tablet into the boy's mouth.

"Move!" he shouted to the group but no one was listening. "Get out of the way!"

Boruto's heart sank when he saw the boy's hand reach for one of the knives on the counter. He had no choice. Boruto charged in and tackled the whole group, knocking them to the floor. One got up but the other was trapped in a headlock with the infected boy. They were both trying to wrestle each other on the floor.

"Let him go and let me handle this," Boruto told them but once again was ignored.

"Move, move!" Sarada shoved her way into the kitchen. The others were having similar trouble getting inside on account of the crowd standing around.

Boruto was trying to pry the two teens apart but couldn't without seriously injuring them. Because of the headlock, if he tried to rip them apart by force, he would risk breaking the teen's neck.

He and Sarada locked eyes for a moment and immediately knew what to do.

"Sarada!" He threw the bottle to her.

She caught it and waited for an opening.

Boruto dove back in and tried to peel the teen's fingers off his coworker to no avail, so instead he started to taunt the teen to draw his attention. It took a few tries but eventually it worked. He released his coworker to go after Boruto.

"You little brat!"

Sarada threw a tablet into the teen's open mouth.

He bit down on part of it, tasted salt and started spitting.

Uncertain if the boy got enough, Sarada readied another tablet just in case.

Boruto and another coworker tried to hold the teen down but he continued to fight. He put this coworker in a headlock, too, and kept his legs wrapped around Boruto's torso to keep him from getting too close. Boruto kept taunting him so Sarada could get another clear shot which was easier this time around. As soon as he opened his mouth to rant about the lowlifes he worked with and the ungrateful kids who treated him like an all-day convenience, Sarada flicked the tablet into his mouth.

He paused for only a moment to swallow it, then continued his tirade against the restaurant and how little he thought of everyone who worked there and how they took advantage of him.

Just as his coworker's face was turning blue from the headlock, the teen loosened his grip. He flopped onto his back, winded and stared at the ceiling.

Boruto held out his hand to prevent the workers from taking any further action.

"What the hell happened?" the teen asked, his face no longer contorted with rage. "When did I get back here? What's going on?"

No one was willing to fight anymore but they were wondering why their buddy went berserk like that out of nowhere.

To prevent the ignorant boss from firing the boy for reasons beyond his control, Sarada quickly explained that the teen was fed something bad by mistake and she and Boruto came to cure him. Understanding that it was not the teen's fault and glad to know everything had been settled, the boss didn't discipline the teen and told everyone to clean up and get back to work.

The delivery boy was still confused but happily resumed his job and his coworkers seemed happy to have him back to normal again. No one sustained any serious injuries.

"Good cover, Sarada," said Chocho.

"Well, it is more or less the truth. I'm glad we took care of it before things got any worse. I was worried about all those tools they have in that kitchen."

"Me, too."

Chocho went inside the restaurant and tapped the boy on the shoulder. She said something to him and the teen pulled out the box she had given him earlier. She took it, opened it, closed it and smiled at him. Then she waved and rejoined her friends outside.

"What was that about?"

She put the empty box in her bag. "I wanted to make sure we got proof he had the chocolate. He said he ate it an hour ago as a snack between deliveries."

"Imagine how much worse it would have been if he had taken it this morning. He would have probably been even more violent."

Chocho closed her bag with a nod. "He ate the whole thing, so we don't have to worry about him sharing it with someone else. This leaves Iwabe and Mitsuki left, right?"

Shikadai took the bottle back from Sarada. "Let's go find Iwabe and hope he hasn't eaten it yet."

* * *

Please review! ^-^


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9:**

Chocho checked her bag to make sure everything was there. "Things look great so far, you guys. All the chocolates that should be here haven't gone anywhere."

"Now we just have to find Iwabe and make sure he hasn't eaten his yet," said Inojin.

"That would be great. Too bad we have no idea where he is."

"Then instead of going around as a group, shouldn't we split up or something?" asked Boruto. "I can send out some clones to look for him."

"That won't help much," said Shikadai. "If he's inside a building, like a movie theater or something, it'll be hard for even your clones to find him. Besides, four won't make much of a difference. If he's rampaging, he'll be easy to spot."

"I don't know if he would, though," said Inojin. "Does Iwabe have anybody he cares that deeply about? The love poison might not work on him."

"He's got to care about somebody," assured Shikadai.

"And if we split up, we can find him faster," Boruto said again.

"It still won't matter if you send clones out or not," said Shikadai. "First off, because he might not be out in the open. Second of all, if we do end up finding him while split up, then that means it's up to that one person to wrangle him and if he's enraged like Sai was, he's going to be even stronger and less predictable. Plus, I'm the only one with the salt."

"I still don't really get how that works," said Inojin, giving him a look. "Doesn't salt go into a chocolate recipe anyway? If it's already in there, why would that be the cure? Maybe we just got lucky and it wore off at that moment."

"Doubtful," said Shikadai. "I happen to know for a fact that Chocho doesn't put salt in her chocolate gifts. Hers aren't balanced out with salt because she doesn't go overboard with the sugar."

"How do you know that?" Boruto asked.

"Because hers didn't have any in them last year and I know how she thinks."

Chocho stared at Shikadai's back as they walked, amazed that he remembered that detail having only been given it once. This also meant that he actually ate something she made. He didn't throw it away.

She looked to the side, thinking about how Shikadai's coolness just increased ever so slightly.

A glint from the side street caught her attention and she cried out a warning to her friends.

A kunai came flying past Boruto's head.

Everyone got into a defensive position as Mitsuki came swaggering out from his hiding place.

"So you dodged. Big deal." Mitsuki's smile was smug and cunning. Little about the Mitsuki they knew remained. He was like a whole new person.

Boruto stepped in front of his friends to address Mitsuki.

"Listen, Mitsuki, you've got to snap out of this. It isn't you. It's that stupid potion talking. You took a love poison by accident. It's making you say these things when you don't really mean it."

"The hell I don't!" Mitsuki spat, losing his cool composure and smile. "Who are you to tell me what I can and can't feel? How do you know what I'm feeling? Oh, because I'm feeling it, it can't be real. Is that what you're saying?"

"No, that's not-"

"Mitsuki's not a normal person, therefore his feelings can't be genuine," he ranted. "He's peculiar, so he probably doesn't have real feelings."

"I'm not saying that!"

"Yeah, because you haven't said it, that means I can't do it, right? I have to do everything you want, is that it? If you don't approve, I can't do it. If you say so, that's got to make it right. 'I'll just tell Mistuki that's what he's feeling and he will because he lacks a will of his own,' right, Boruto?! He's nobody!"

"What? You're the one who's always doing what I'm doing, you know."

"Boruto, is this really the best time to argue with him?" Sarada hissed.

Mitsuki lowered his head, keeping eye contact with Boruto the entire time, his body hunching dangerously.

"It has to be your way. You call the shots. You know everything." Mitsuki grit his teeth. "You've always looked down on me. You've always considered me a freak. You even called me weird to my face."

Boruto tried to calm him down by apologizing. "I've never looked down on you. I couldn't get through those missions without you. I need you, Mitsuki. You're my friend."

"I'm only your friend when you need something from me. In other words, you used me on all those missions. You couldn't do it without me. Admitting you're weak doesn't make it less of a problem! Outside of missions, you still use me. You only hang out with me in case you need something. To make yourself feel better. To look good. You're showing off your slave to the world, huh?!"

"I didn't say that!"

"Boruto, no matter what you say, he's just going to twist things," said Sarada. "He's going to find a problem with everything you do or don't do. That's what he's like now."

"Then there's no point in trying to reason with him." Boruto took out his kunai, knowing Mitsuki would draw his own. "I'll keep him busy while you guys figure out how to give him the salt."

"Instead of that plan, try to keep him talking long enough for me to use my shadow… What are you doing?!" Shikadai screamed as Boruto jumped away.

"Boruto, that's a bad idea! He's going to fight seriously and you don't know what to expect from him!" Sarada tried to stop him but it was too late.

Their blades clashed together and Mitsuki quickly and effortlessly kicked Boruto in the stomach. Launched into the air, Mitsuki slithered after him and grabbed Boruto from behind as he fell. Mitsuki got him into a headlock and Boruto disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I knew you would do that!" Boruto came at him from behind.

Mitsuki dodged every one of Boruto's blows. "We're on the same team. I know what you'll do as well."

He anticipated a fake-out from the blond ninja and was correct. Boruto tried to attack Mitsuki from the side as he launched a series of blows from the front. Mitsuki avoided them all, wove himself around Boruto and disarmed him.

"You think you're so clever, don't you? There's no way you can take me on and win." Mitsuki wrapped his arm around Boruto's neck and squeezed while pressing a kunai into his back. If Mitsuki strangling Boruto didn't kill him the kunai would.

He saw the shadow coming and Sarada drawing near from the side. They had the same idea. If one didn't get him, the other would.

To avoid their attacks, Mitsuki threw Boruto into Shikadai and turned the kunai on Sarada.

Another attack in the wake of the first. Inojin and Chocho had entered the fight. Mitsuki had to act quickly.

He abandoned his fight with Sarada to leap over Chocho's expansion justu and strike Inojin's with his lightning style.

"He's too fast," said Shikadai, tending to Boruto. "We have to slow him down."

"If we close in on him, he'll have nowhere to go."

"And neither will we," said Shikadai. "If we cluster together, we'll create an easy target. Remember, we don't have to defeat him. We just have to get him to take the salt."

Sarada managed to grab onto Mitsuki's arm and tried to pin him to the ground, pressing her other hand into the nap of his neck.

"Snake Lighting."

Sarada jumped away before he could strike. He dodged Inojin's attack and went for a direct attack.

It wasn't Sarada's Sharingan that had her reading the situation but her other senses.

That's when she noticed the danger Mitsuki was in.

Sarada hurried over to warn Boruto and Shikadai. "Mitsuki's body is heating up. When I touched his skin, it was like he was on fire. And his neck, his wrist. I felt his pulse. His heart's beating incredibly fast."

"He's in the middle of a fight," reasoned Boruto. "Are you saying it's got nothing to do with it?"

"It's his adrenaline. It's the fight and the hate and rage he feels right now. It's too much. If we don't stop Mitsuki soon, his body could give out. The longer he's like this, the worse it gets. We already know that from seeing the escalation. But it's taking a toll on his body."

Watching the fight, they knew she had a point. Mitsuki was getting more erratic by the minute. At one point, he grabbed Inojin to use as a shield to stop Chocho from hitting him. Now he was actually taking on their attacks and plowing through them. He was entering a berserker mode.

Boruto banged his fist on the ground. How could he stop Mitsuki without causing him further damage? There had to be a way to fight him while he was like this. He didn't want to add to his stress, fearing what might happen to Mitsuki, but talking to him just brought out his anger.

"I have an idea," he told them. "Shikadai, give me the salt and I'll throw it in his mouth when I attack him. I'm sure I can get close enough. He's so pissed at me, I bet he can't resist opening his mouth just to scream at me."

"Are you sure? This is all we have left." Shikadai held up the salt tablets in the palm of his hand. There were only two remaining.

"I'll take one and you hang on to that one just in case." Boruto took one of the tablets.

"If this doesn't work, Boruto, I can use my shadow to restrain him. I can't do it for long, given his state and what it's doing to his body, but I can buy a few seconds of time with it."

"I'm sure I can get him to take it." Boruto grinned confidently. "Ok, I'm going back in."

Mitsuki threw Inojin into Chocho and charged, intending to finish the job while they were on the ground. Spotting Boruto in the corner of his eye, he dashed to the left, turning to meet him.

Boruto and Mitsuki clashed blades again.

"Come on, Mitsuki," Boruto pleaded, trying to get him to open his mouth. A mock, an insult, a rant, anything. He needed Mitsuki to take the salt tablet. "Mitsuki, I know how strong you are, but there's no way you can take on all of us."

"The hell I can't," Mitsuki said through his teeth.

It was no good. Mitsuki couldn't take the tablet through a clenched jaw.

"Mitsuki, come on!"

Mitsuki's head collided with Boruto's in a headbutt. Mitsuki's left hand darted out, reaching for Boruto's neck. Boruto jumped away but was unwilling to travel far in case he missed an opening.

Mitsuki darted after him again and again, Boruto ducking and weaving out of his path.

"I know you don't really hate me," Boruto told him.

Mitsuki's jaw clenched tightly, then burst open to scream, "I can't stand you at all! You worthless-"

Boruto threw the tablet in his mouth.

Mitsuki spat it in his face.

"Mit-"

He punched him. "Words cannot express how much I loathe you!" Mitsuki pushed him back and the salt tablet was lost somewhere underfoot.

"Crap." Shikadai looked at the last remaining tablet in his hand. It was all up to him. If Mitsuki couldn't take this… "Boruto's got him distracted. I'll stop Mitsuki from moving."

To make sure Mitsuki didn't see the shadow, Sarada rushed in to help Boruto, though it was only a diversion.

Mitsuki took the bait and as he readied an attack, his body stopped moving.

Shikadai started walking forward, Mitsuki mimicking his every move. He could feel the strain of the jutsu as Mitsuki fought to break free. He could only manage a few more seconds.

"Sarada," he called, opening his palm so she could take the tablet and feed it to Mitsuki.

At no point did they mention what it was or what it would do to him. Mitsuki didn't know if the tablet in his hand was meant for him or one of them. He didn't know what they were planning. However, he concluded that whatever was in Shikadai's hand must have been important to them, so he had to destroy it.

Sarada's fingers were about to grasp the tablet when Mitsuki's arm snaked forward and slapped Shikadai's hand, knocking the tablet to the ground.

"No!" Sarada reached down to pick it up, but Mitsuki stomped on it.

"Snake Lightning!"

Shikadai attempted to push her out of the way, but the jutsu having been broken in suck a violent way left him unsteady and he ended up falling into her instead. The lightning struck them both.

Boruto tackled Mitsuki from behind but he slipped free and came up behind Boruto instead. Knowing he would do this, Boruto quickly turned around to block his strike.

"Crap, this isn't good," Inojin whimpered. "Even if we do overpower him, we don't have any more salt to give him."

Chocho tried to restrain Mitsuki but it was no good. His movements were becoming even more unpredictable. Several times Boruto was able to guess correctly where and what Mitsuki would do next but now even he was being taken by surprise when Mitsuki did something else.

He willingly took on several of Chocho's attacks in order to get close to her. Thinking she could hold him down with her jutsu, she expanded her arm and went after him. Mitsuki allowed her to do this so he could electrocute her.

When she went down, Boruto took her place. Mitsuki kept zipping around and then faced Boruto directly, wanting to inflict pain on him. He let Boruto hit him so he could get closer. He tried to strangled Boruto in a variety of ways but Boruto managed to get away every time which only infuriated Mitsuki more.

Inojin watched, wondering if there was anything he could do. He didn't want to risk using the Mind Transfer Jutsu because the love poison was affecting Mitsuki's body as well as his mental state. Entering Mitsuki would put Inojin at risk, too. He worried the love poison would also affect him. Besides, he still hadn't mastered the jutsu. On top of which, Mitsuki had a firm resolve which would make it very difficult to overshadow him.

None of it mattered anyway if they couldn't reverse the effects. Both salt tablets were gone.

Getting an idea, Inojin sprinted down a different street in search of something that just might do the trick.

Mitsuki got on top of Boruto and pressed him into the ground from behind. He pulled out a kunai and moved in the slice Boruto's neck. Sarada, mostly recovered from the previous attack, tackled him and wrestled the kunai from his hand. Boruto tried once more to attack Mitsuki with his own jutsu. He and his clone were ready to unleash the wind style move he had just about perfected when Mitsuki held up Sarada, placing her between himself and the attack.

"That dirty..!" Boruto pulled away and the attack fizzled out.

"Unwilling to attack through your friend," Mitsuki mocked. "That's what makes you weak."

"Shut up! She's your friend, too!"

"That's true. But unlike you, I don't care." Mitsuki tried to stab her in the back with his last remaining kunai.

Shikadai grabbed Mitsuki's wrist and pulled his arm back as far as he could. Even after all this, Mitsuki had such tremendous strength left. Under normal circumstances, Mitsuki should have collapsed by now after using so much exertion and using his jutsu as many times as he had.

This worried him about Mitsuki's body and mind. If they would have given out by now, that meant something was preventing his body from registering his fatigue which meant Mitsuki was in great danger. Sarada was right. They had to end the fight quickly before Mitsuki's body broke down completely.

Boruto tried to pry Sarada and Mitsuki apart but his grip on her was too strong. Shikadai was pulling as hard as he could to keep the blade from entering her back. Chocho was crawling towards them, wanting to help while still unrecovered from the electric current surging through her body.

Boruto pushed against Mitsuki's jaw, turning his head upward, hoping Mitsuki would loosen his grip to distance himself. He didn't, withstanding the discomfort and annoyance he felt.

"Mitsuki, stop!" Boruto begged. "Knock it off!"

Shikadai kept pulling, Sarada kept struggling, Chocho kept crawling and Boruto kept pushing. Mitsuki didn't let go. He wouldn't stop.

An overcast of the sun distracted him. Someone had leapt into the air.

Inojin jumped and shoved something in his hand into Mitsuki's mouth, taking full advantage of Mitsuki's head being turned upward, thus making it easier for him to swallow.

Mitsuki coughed and spat. He withdrew from the group, distancing himself so he could recover.

"What did you do?" Shikadai asked.

"I found something I thought would help," answered Inojin.

A small bottle hit the ground, a green band around the neck of the dark glass.

"Soy sauce."

"That does have salt in it, doesn't it? It might work."

Mitsuki kept spitting but he drank most of what was poured down his throat. He raised his head, snarling. Now he was even angrier than he was before.

Fury mounting, Mitsuki became so irrational, he started attacking anyone and anything within reach. He lunged at Chocho who was still on the ground. Inojin stepped in to protect her and was forced to the ground by Mitsuki's hand around his throat. Boruto grabbed the back of Mitsuki's head and tried to pull him off.

"I don't think it's working. He's still-"

Mitsuki leaned back forcefully, knocking Boruto off balance and they both tumbled backwards. Mitsuki rolled onto his knees and tried to bring his heel down on Boruto's neck but he turned away, taking the blow to his shoulder instead.

Mitsuki chased after him, picking up a fallen kunai as he went. He landed a flying kick into Boruto's back, knocking him over. Boruto swiftly recovered but Mitsuki's blade was waiting for him.

Crying out in surprise, Boruto raised his blade to meet Mitsuki's, saving his face from being torn open.

Mitsuki pressed the kunai closer with both hands. Boruto pushed harder against it. Mitsuki put his weight behind the blade, pushing it closer to Boruto, bloodlust leaking through his teeth.

He wanted to kill him. He wanted to make it as painful as possible. He wanted to hurt him. He hated him. He hated him so much.

The amount of hate and rage in Mitsuki's gold eyes left Boruto feeling desperate and hurt. He had never seen this look in Mitsuki's eyes before. It was enough to make him cringed.

Mitsuki really wanted to kill him.

Knowledge of this made Boruto waver for just a moment. It scared him. It hurt.

His pitiful eyes begged Mitsuki to stop but it only made him try harder to hurt him.

He didn't know how much longer he could keep Mitsuki's blade at bay.

Mitsuki's eyes softened.

"Boruto?"

Hopeful, Boruto eased up on his kunai. He could feel Mitsuki's strength falter behind his blade, losing the will to fight.

He could see the malice disappear from Mitsuki's eyes until they took on the likeness of the Mitsuki he knew.

"What are you doing?" he asked, puzzled by the situation.

It seemed Mitsuki had little recollection of the battle. Though he still had a kunai in his hand, he couldn't make sense of why it was there.

Boruto got to his feet, putting his kunai away. He was certain this wasn't a trick. Mitsuki's eyes had returned to normal.

"Are you ok, Mitsuki?"

"Yeah, I…" Mitsuki's legs buckled. "My… body. Why..?"

Mitsuki fell to his knees, utterly exhausted. It felt like he had been tensing his muscles for some time. He could barely stand without toppling over. Now sitting on the ground, his limbs throbbed with overexertion.

He couldn't understand what happened. How had he tired himself out like this?

Boruto was at his side in an instant. His friend's concern touched Mitsuki but he couldn't bring a smile to his face, utterly dumbfounded by this feeling.

"I'm not surprised," Sarada said as she came over to investigate. "It's like when you overwork a muscle. It's temporarily weakened. You just need rest, is all."

"Honestly, I'm surprised he hasn't passed out," said Shikadai.

Mitsuki frowned, licking his lips. "Why do I taste soy sauce?"

Inojin didn't respond. He had grabbed the bottle off a restaurant table from a nearby patio, having little time to be picky and no time to shop for salt in a store. There was a bottle on every table, so he felt they wouldn't miss the one.

"Do you remember what happened?" Shikadai asked Mitsuki.

"When?"

"Uh, well…"

Chocho forced her way to the front. "I gave you some chocolate this morning. Do you remember that?"

MItsuki nodded. "Yes, I ate it in front of you. Then we went down a different street. Sarada wanted to give a gift to Konohamaru-sensei. Then we went to a store." Mitsuki frowned. "I'm not sure how long we were in there, actually. I remember going to a couple different places, but I must have lost track of time."

He remembered traveling but the details were fuzzy. Before he knew it, they were going to the next place. He felt like he had gotten distracted several times because the transition between certain events was muddled.

"We were going to get lunch, weren't we?" Mitsuki asked, knowing they had planned to do that. He remembered Chocho coming with them but couldn't remember when Inojin and Shikadai arrived. "I think I remember going inside… but… We go there so often, I might be thinking of another time. I don't really recall eating anything. But the taste of soy sauce in my mouth indicates that I did."

He didn't remember saying those awful things to his friends or tormenting Boruto all morning. He didn't even remember leaving the restaurant. He certainly didn't remember the fight. Those events never formed into memories. Nothing prompted from that rage and hate did. Once the feeling subsided, so did the recollection.

Since he had no idea what had happened, the group decided not to bring it up and make him feel worse.

* * *

Please review! ^-^


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10:**

After some rest, Mitsuki was able to pick himself off the street and sit down on a nearby bench. The rush of adrenaline no longer surging through him left Mitsuki feelings tired and wasn't up for any more excitement.

"I'm exhausted," he told them, his muscles aching. His friends seemed to be on a mission, but given his state, he wasn't sure he would be of any use to them.

"There's still one left," Shikadai informed them. "And it's the one I gave to Iwabe."

"We've got to go after him next," said Boruto. "We handled everyone else."

"Yeah, but we still don't know where to find him," Sarada reminded him. "And if you use your clones to help us search, it'll tire you out faster. If he's anything like Mitsuki was, he won't make things easy. We're going to need everyone in top shape for this. Let's not be careless."

"But now we know something else," said Shikadai. "The longer they're like this, the more strain it puts on the body. A person cannot handle their blood boiling for so long. Which means Iwabe will be in danger if we don't find him soon."

"All the more reason we can't stand around here talking about it, you know," said Boruto. "I know you don't want to split up and you think using my clones are a bad idea, so what can we do? We can't waste any more time."

"If only we knew where to look," said Chocho. "Their usual hangouts would be a great start and we can go from there."

"I'm not sure where they'd go unless there's something going on."

Boruto tried to think of where Iwabe would be. Training grounds, perhaps? His place? It was Valentine's Day. He might have been at an event.

"What kind of places would hand out free things to guys on Valentine's Day?"

Shikadai turned around. "We were trying to avoid the crowds, but… If it's free, maybe he would go there just to take advantage of it."

"Mom's shop is handing out one free flower to customers," said Inojin. "But I doubt he would want a free flower."

"Free food is hard to pass up. Any places doing that?"

"They do more for White Day, don't they?"

"Yeah, but there is a bakery that hands out free cookies on Valentine's Day," said Sarada. "They're sample size, but they hand them out until dusk to people walking by."

"Then let's head there and see if we can find him or ask around and see if anyone knows where he is," said Boruto.

They went to the bakery first and the woman passing out free samples said she saw him a couple hours ago when he stopped by for a free cookie. She had no idea where he would be now but saw him travel up the road where more shops were located.

Heart shaped lanterns lined the streets. The shopping area was very busy with shoppers and lovers taking full advantage of the holiday and the specials that came with it. No matter where he went, Boruto could smell chocolate.

It didn't look like Iwabe would be anywhere near this congestion, even if there was free food to be found.

Then Chocho pointed straight ahead, a determined look in her eyes. "That way."

"You see him?" Boruto scanned the crowd but couldn't find Iwabe anywhere.

"No, but I know where he is."

Boruto raised his brow.

Chocho led the way and stood at the end of the block, pointing to a food cart on the corner of the next street. "The teriyaki vender always gives out a second skewer with the purchase of one between four o'clock and six. It's four now, which means now's the best chance."

Boruto frowned. "You're basing this off of a good deal at a food cart?"

"This vender only does it on holidays, which narrows down our search for Iwabe." She grinned confidently. "Only a fool would pass up such a good deal like this one when it comes to meat."

"But tons of places sell teriyaki. And lots of places have buy one, get one deals. What makes you think he'll come to this one?"

"Because the meat this vender uses is top grade and seasoned differently from other places, making it special. The meat is not dry and he does a special rub on the meat before glazing it and cooking it, then he dips it again, making it sweet and juicy. His blend of spices is a trade secret and the chicken skewers are so delectable, scalpers have been known to show up. This is the place for sure!"

Boruto backed off, seeing the fire in Chocho's eyes when she spoke so passionately about the vender's top selling item, but he still had his doubts. There was no guarantee Iwabe would show up here of all places and they were only going to waste time waiting for him to show up.

Just as Boruto was preparing to leave to search elsewhere, Iwabe turned the corner and went up to the vender.

"Eh?!"

"I told you!" Chocho flipped her hair back smugly. "Only a fool would pass up such a chance."

As Iwabe was getting his skewers, Boruto and the rest of the group came rushing over, bombarding him with questions. He could only make out a few words, everyone was talking so quickly and over each other.

"Easy, guys. What's going on? One at a time."

Shikadai took over from there. "Iwabe, remember that chocolate I gave you?"

"Yeah."

"Did you eat it?"

"No."

They breathed a sigh of relief.

"Great." Shikadai held out his hand. "Can I have it back?"

"No."

"What? Why not? Don't tell me you got rid of it."

"No. I gave it to Udon-sensei."

"You what?!"

Iwabe jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Yeah, it wasn't like I was all that interested in eating it, so I gave it to Udon-sensei because no one had given him anything yet and I figured I might as well. If he's upset, it could make training with him very annoying."

"You gave away my chocolate to somebody else?" Chocho asked, irritated that her gift had been passed along so many times in one day. "Did nobody care enough to even try it?"

"Not now, Chocho."

"Where is your sensei now?" Shikadai asked Iwabe. "Please tell me you know where he is."

"Yeah, he said something about meeting up with some friends for dinner before the rush. He was going to meet them now, I think."

"Where?"

Iwabe tried to think. "Let's see. Did he mention the place? Oh, yeah. It was the ramen shop over that way. Ichiraku's."

"Thanks. Let's go, guys. With any luck, we can… Chocho!"

She turned around, a skewer in each hand. "What?" she asked, already munching. "I'm not fool enough to pass on a special."

They raced to the ramen shop with luck on their side. Udon was just entering with Moegi at his side. The Genin cried out to stop him and he turned.

"Did Iwabe give you a little box of chocolate today?" Shikadai asked, out of breath.

"Y- yes, he did."

"Do you still have it?"

Udon rubbed the back of his neck. "No, I don't. I know it was given to me out of pity, but then Moegi gave me something and I didn't really need the other one, so I gave it away."

"How many times is my chocolate going to change hands?!"

Ignoring Chocho's complaints, the group asked Udon one simple question.

"Who did you give it to?"

"I gave it to the Hokage."

Everyone fell silent.

"What?"

"I gave it to Naruto."

* * *

Gasp! D8

Please review! ^-^


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11:**

"He'd been having a really rough day," Udon explained. "Apparently, the paperwork he finished yesterday got destroyed so he had to do them over again, chaos with meetings and files not going to the right place. Someone even torched his office today. Wouldn't say who did it or why, but it looks like he knows who's responsible."

Udon came in after the fact, so he had no idea what was going on but he took pity on Naruto. He really had been through a lot in one day. Naruto had even given him the day off so he could enjoy himself, so Udon felt bad that Naruto had to do so much work while he had fun with friends.

"I felt bad for the guy, so I gave him the chocolate Iwabe gave to me. Thought it might cheer him up."

The Genin looked at each other, then sprinted down the street towards the Hokage building.

"This is bad, this is bad, this is bad, this is bad," Shikadai kept repeating as he ran.

"The Hokage loves the village and everyone in it. He considers everyone family," said Sarada. "If that potion turns love to hate, what's he going to do to the village?"

Though he had his fair share of complaints, Boruto knew his father's devotion was undisputable. If Naruto's feelings suddenly changed, it spelled bad news for the entire village.

It wasn't just the position of power that posed a problem, it was the strength Naruto exhibited that everyone talked about which added to Boruto's fear.

What would his father be like if he became full of hate? Mitsuki was pretty scary when the potion took hold of him. Something told Boruto that he wouldn't want to be around to see his father half-crazy with hate and rage.

If he was as powerful as everyone claimed him to be, he could destroy the village and everyone in it.

What would he do to Hinata and Himawari? Sakura? Shikamaru?

Boruto and Shikadai were neck and neck as they raced to the Hokage building.

"What if he's already eaten it?" Inojin asked. "There's no way we can take him on by ourselves. Mitsuki was hard enough and he's a Genin like us."

"Isn't the Hokage still a Genin technically?"

"You know what I mean. He's the Hokage. He's an adult with tons of experience. If the poison is designed to amplify everything and if he's not thinking straight, what's he gonna be like? What's he gonna do to us?"

"He might not have eaten it yet. We've got to get there before he does."

* * *

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You seriously don't remember anything?" Shikamaru asked Sai.

"I remember a few things but honestly the day's been kind of a blur," Sai confessed.

Shikamaru had come to Sai's home to interview him on what happened earlier that day, but he had no idea what Shikamaru was talking about. He was surprised to learn about the documents and as soon as he heard about the office, the first thing he did was ask if Naruto was alright.

"I felt off this afternoon, but now I'm ok. You think someone used genjutsu on me?"

Shikamaru assumed it was a form of genjutsu but now he wasn't sure.

Ino had come out to hear what they had to say and vouched for her husband, telling Shikamaru that he was behaving oddly but her son had a reasonable explanation for it.

"A love… poison?" Shikamaru repeated, wrinkling his nose. "I've never heard of that before."

"Apparently, it's supposed to turn love to hate. Inojin and his friends seemed to know a lot about it. They even gave Sai the cure and it seemed to reverse everything. I've been keeping an eye on him all day but there's been no relapse."

"I see." Shikamaru turned to Sai. "How do you feel now?"

"Fine," said Sai. "A little tired, actually. When I came to and everyone was staring at me, I actually felt like I had just finished up intense training."

"Really?"

"It's like I vented all my frustrations at once. Afterward, I felt tired and calm."

"Hmm." Shikamaru had to admit such a response would be normal of someone who just got finished throwing a huge tantrum. If Sai did unleash so much rage and energy, it would explain the calm tiredness he was feeling.

The idea of a love poison was still baffling, but it did make a lot of sense. What they had seen today all pointed to someone who was experiencing a lot of hate. If it was true that the poison transformed love to hate, it would explain why Sai would be so cruel to such a close friend.

"What did they use as an antidote?" asked Shikamaru.

"They used salt to counter the effects. Shikadai came up with it."

"Shikadai? So my son's involved. Figured, since you said Inojin's friends were helping out."

Sai gave Shikamaru a remorseful look. "Did I really do all that damage? I don't remember making any decision to do any of that stuff. I don't even remember feeling angry."

There was no point in taking this any further. As long as Sai was back to normal, Shikamaru considered the matter settled.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "You weren't yourself. And no one got seriously hurt. Glad you're ok."

Ino gave Sai's hand a squeeze. "Me, too."

Sai smiled.

He really was back to his old self.

Shikamaru turned away, thinking about what he should report. He had a feeling Naruto wouldn't hold a grudge over this. The rest of the people in the building would want an explanation for the damage but he wasn't about to throw Sai under the bus for something he couldn't even remember. It wasn't his fault anyway. He could just tell everyone it was just a minor accident and leave it at that.

On his way back to the building, he noticed Shikadai and his friends racing each other towards the same building. It didn't look like a fun race either. They looked terrified.

"What the hell?"

* * *

Naruto put the last paper into the folder and closed it, putting it on top of the pile on his desk. "Ten down, six to go."

He had just finished cleaning his office and immediately got to work filing out all the paperwork that remained intact. Every now and then he would find a stray piece of broken glass and would drop it into the trashcan.

He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his aching wrist. If these documents didn't need to be written by hand, he would have been done sooner. Even the ones already drawn up needed his signature so he couldn't automate everything.

He still had so much left to do. Six more files to get through and it was a little after four in the afternoon. It was hard to think.

Naruto looked at the box on the edge of his desk. Udon had given him some chocolate to make him feel better. He had a feeling Hinata was going to surprise him with some chocolate of her own tonight, but he wasn't sure he'd see it before midnight.

The pick-me-up was too tempting.

"I could use a little snack break. I need the energy to get through the rest of this stuff."

He reached over the papers to grab the box.

Holding it in his palm, he used his other hand to undo the ribbon binding it together. He lifted the top off the box, finding a small chocolate square with a pink heart on top.

It looked really good. He could taste the sweetness already.

He took the chocolate out of the box and brought it to his lips. It smelled really good.

Naruto opened his mouth.

The newly repaired doors came flying open and five Genin came tumbling inside, tripping over each other as they forced their way in.

"No!" they screamed, arms extended as if to grab his wrist. "Wait!"

Naruto froze, chocolate hovering in front of his open mouth. "Huh?"

Boruto stepped over his friends' backs to reach his father. He quickly snatched the chocolate from his hand and slammed it back into the box. Pressing it closed with both hands, Boruto fell to the floor in utter relief.

That was too close.

"What is going on?" Naruto asked, taking the words out of Shikamaru's mouth. His advisor had just arrived and was standing in the doorway above the children.

Boruto held up the box. "The chocolate in this contains a love poison. We just saved your ass."

"Poison?" Naruto was out of his seat. "How did that happen? Who did this?" He knew Udon wouldn't knowingly give him something poisonous. "Wait, what's a love poison?"

"If you eat it, it turns all your love to hate."

"How did that end up in that chocolate?" Naruto had to learn the source quickly to prevent any more from going in to circulation. If it was made by a company, it had to be shut down at once. If an individual made it, he had to find out who it was.

"It's… sort of a long story." Boruto didn't want to get Chocho into trouble. After all, it was an accident. This was the last of them, so he didn't see a reason to go into detail about it.

"It's my fault," Chocho confessed, stepping forward. "I made it on accident. I was trying to make a love potion but ended up making a love poison instead."

"Why?" Naruto asked gently. He didn't want to scold the girl who clearly felt bad enough as it was.

"I… I just…"

"No, it's our fault," Shikadai butted in, standing beside Chocho. "We pushed her to do this."

Chocho turned to stare at Shikadai in surprise. She never imagined he'd come forward like this.

"We rejected Chocho's kindness and made her feel unappreciated. We made her think we didn't care about her or her feelings."

Inojin went to stand beside his teammates. "It's true. It's only natural she'd try to make something that would force people to pay attention to her after we made her feel so bad. We basically told her that she didn't matter, even though that's not the case."

"We're just as responsible as she is," said Shikadai. "We caused this to happen. If we hadn't hurt her feelings and said those things, she wouldn't have had a reason to make that. And what she made was an accident anyway, so…"

Naruto's eyes passed from one to the next, slowly. They were standing shoulder to shoulder with each other, ready and willing to accept the blame equally in this. They were willing to stick up for each other while also admitting to their own faults.

"How many are there?" he asked.

"This is the only one left," said Boruto, still holding onto the box.

"It's true. There aren't anymore," said Shikadai. "We took care of them all and gave the antidote to anyone who ate it."

Naruto studied them for a moment then bowed his head. "Alright. That's great news."

"How much trouble are we in?" asked Inojin, hesitantly.

"None," he said, taking a seat. "You created a problem but then you fixed it and, instead of covering it up, you confessed. I don't think there's anything left we have to do about it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But I would like all the chocolate containing that love poison to be turned over to Shikamaru immediately so it can be properly destroyed."

Chocho dumped the contents of her bag onto the table and Boruto handed over the box in his hand. Shikamaru gathered them all and put them in a container for transport to make sure not a single piece would be mistaken for something else or lost.

"I'm really sorry," Chocho told Naruto. "I didn't mean it."

"It's ok," he said. "You owned up to your mistake and that's good. And who hasn't felt unappreciated at times? I'm sure tons of people have attempted to do the same thing. But now that you know what can happen, maybe you should find a different way to handle the situation."

She nodded. "I totally get it. Don't worry. And it's really cool of you to be so cool about it."

Naruto dismissed the group and they left the office.

As Shikadai was leaving, his father addressed him from the doorway. "That was pretty cool of you as well, Shikadai. Sticking up for your friend like that. And owning up to your share of the blame."

He shrugged. "Well, we did make her feel pretty rotten. It's only fair."

"Still. What you said back there in front of her and the Hokage… Very noble of you."

"Nah," he said, dismissively. "She's my teammate. I gotta work with these guys. It'd be troublesome if she was pissed at me."

Shikamaru grinned. "Fair enough."

They both played it cool but Shikamaru was still pleased with his son's action and Shikadai knew he had unintentionally hurt his friend's feelings and had to remedy that.

* * *

Please review! ^-^


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12:**

"I'm home!" Naruto called into the house spiritedly.

"Daddy's home!" Himawari ran into the entryway to greet him. "Daddy! You're home early!"

"Yeah, I know. I can have dinner with you guys." Naruto worked tirelessly to get home before sunset. It took several clones and the help of his friends to pull it off.

Boruto was in the middle of setting the table when his father came into the room. "You're here early. Thought you'd have a ton of stuff to do with all the trouble going on."

"What trouble?" Hinata asked, completely unaware of what happened that day.

"You can thank Sai for that, actually," said Naruto with a grin. "It'll take time for the new papers to get drawn up and printed and my office does need repair, so there's only so much I could get done. I'm probably going to have to work late for a while to make up for it, but it's gotta get done."

Boruto looked away. "I see. Ok."

"I planned on coming home early today anyway. I wanted to spend Valentine's Day with you guys."

"Ok." Boruto wouldn't look at him, refusing to show Naruto his smile.

Hinata made a special Valentine's Day dinner and presented Naruto with a huge heart made of chocolate with a frosting fox she had prepared earlier that day. Himawari told Naruto at length what she had done that day to help her mother. Boruto resisted for as long as possible but couldn't fight the urge to tell his father about what he and his friends had been up to.

Not once did Naruto get up to leave in order to do more work, making it a very nice dinner.

Unfortunately, Naruto's best efforts to get home early tonight proved very taxing. Shortly after dinner, while preparing to spend some quality time with everyone, Naruto fell asleep on the couch, completely drained.

Boruto scoffed. "He came home early just to sleep. How lame."

"Come on, Boruto," Hinata told him. "You know he tried very hard to make today special. But his job is very tiring and stressful. He must have had to work extra hard today just to get home at this hour."

Considering the amount of trouble Boruto's friends must have put him through, Boruto really couldn't blame him for passing out on the couch. Sai alone created extra work for him.

Which wouldn't have happened if Chocho hadn't made that tainted chocolate, which wouldn't have happened if her teammates hadn't made her feel so bad.

"I guess we all had a hand in this in some way."

Not that they had to worry about that anymore. After analyzing the chocolate, Shikamaru discovered that the cure was a chemical compound found in salt. His son's hunch was correct and they could rest easy knowing that everyone had returned to normal and wouldn't suffer any adverse effects.

Himawari draped a blanket over Naruto's body, tucking him in. She didn't seem to mind how the night was going. As long as he was home, awake or not, she could spend time with him and take care of him in her own way.

She tried to make him as comfortable as possible, explaining to her brother that if he was well rested, he might be able to work extra hard the next day and come home early then, too.

Boruto smiled. "Whatever."

* * *

Shikadai found Chocho sitting by herself on the footbridge looking out over the people passing by on the street below.

"Hey," he called calmly.

She looked up. "Hey."

Shikadai looked away, arms at his sides. She was still staring at him, which made him even more uncomfortable.

He came here with a specific intention but now he was losing his nerve.

Some things were better left unsaid; but that mentality ended up biting him back. Sometimes not saying something made matters worse.

He had to explain himself. He owed her that much.

"Listen," he began, "about what we said before… The whole, 'don't expect anything' thing… Um…"

He wouldn't look at her. It was hard enough to say it without having to see her face.

Remembering his mother's lecture about looking someone in the face in situations like these, Shikadai forced himself to look at her, but his eyes quickly drifted downward. Surely, having his head turned her way was good enough. His mother wasn't here to badger him about it, or hold his chin to make sure he looked at her directly.

He took a deep breath.

"I didn't mean it that way," he said. "It's just… Honestly, I was under the impression it meant something else."

"Like what?" she asked.

"On account of so many girls using the holiday as a way to reveal their feelings for guys they like. I hear them talk. How giving them chocolate is a way of telling them without telling them. They're making their feelings known."

In school, a lot of girls talked about giving chocolate gifts to their crushes and if the boy gave them something on White Day, it meant the feeling was mutual. He would often hear girls support each other or even dare one another to give chocolate to a certain boy.

"But you can give chocolate to friends and family and coworkers, even teammates," Chocho told him as if it were obvious.

"Yeah, but I was only focusing on one aspect of it. The whole romantic thing," he explained, feeling a little calmer now that they were talking. "I thought you giving me chocolate was your way of saying you had feelings for me. So, if I gave you something in return, it would be the same as me saying I had feelings for you."

She raised her brow. "Really?"

"I know it's stupid now that I think about it." He looked to the side. "I thought by ignoring you, I was saving your feelings. I didn't want to lead you on. Now I realize by doing that, I was hurting your feelings in a different way. Instead of leading you to think I wanted to be more than friends, which I don't, I made you think I didn't care about you at all. Which also isn't the case. So I'm sorry."

Getting an explanation did clear quite a few things up. This was all unintentional. He thought he was doing the right thing, in his own way. It took him a while, but he finally realized his mistake.

"Boy, you guys are clueless," she said with a smirk.

Shikadai grimaced. "Yeah, well, the point is I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Neither of us did. Inojin and I both felt the same way. I just thought you deserved to know why we did and said what we did so you didn't think we were being mean on purpose or that we didn't care. Obviously, we do, just…"

"Don't worry about it," said Chocho, standing up. "Neither of you guys are man enough to be my guy."

Shikadai knew what she meant but couldn't help feeling insulted at the same time.

"But I have to admit, you guys did get a bit cooler in my eyes."

"Oh?" He looked at her.

"Yeah. It takes a real man to admit his mistakes and apologize to the woman he hurt."

He stared at her.

"Better than ignoring it," she finished. "Glad I got an explanation. So thanks for that."

"Well," Shikadai looked away again. "If we're going to work together on missions, we need to trust each other. It'd be troublesome if you thought we didn't care about you."

She smirked again.

* * *

Few people knew about the love poison and even those infected by it understood little about it. Sai was perfectly fine after getting the antidote. Mitsuki's group was concerned about his condition, given how long he had been under its influence, but after some rest he was feeling like his usual self and was ready to train with his team.

Shikamaru and Naruto decided to keep information on the love poison on file, particularly the antidote, just in case this happened again. They didn't ask Chocho how she discovered it and felt it might be best if that information remained a secret just in case someone tried to duplicate it. It was better to have information on the antidote than the actual poison in this case. However, analyzing the chocolate did lead to a wealth of information, so they didn't need to ask Chocho in the first place.

Naruto was touched by Chocho's team and felt everything they had been through was punishment enough and Shikamaru agreed. When people asked about the state of his office, Naruto just told them that it was a little mishap with an unnamed shinobi and not an attempt on his life. Since the village was chaotic on a regular basis, with young ninja using jutsu they still hadn't perfected and absentminded shinobi putting something down without warning anyone, people accepted this and didn't ask any further questions.

There was once an incident where an exploding tag got snagged on someone's sleeve and accidently detonated, so Naruto's explanation wasn't that farfetched. When Tsunade was the Hokage, things were broken on a regular basis.

As far as Chocho and her team were concerned, things had gotten back to normal very quickly. She didn't even hold a grudge after hearing why her teammates refused to give her anything and said what they said. A simple explanation and apology from the two of them was enough to satisfy her… and being treated to lunch after training.

Though the two boys did seem to view White Day in a different light, now seeing that the response wasn't a declaration of love but a way for the boy to simply repay the girl for her kindness and show their appreciation.

Looking at the holiday from a different perspective, Shikadai and Inojin decided to make it up to their female teammate and get her something for the first time. They decided food would be better appreciated than anything else and agreed to give her something special next month.

* * *

The end!

Hope you enjoyed the story. Thank you for reading and please review. ^-^


End file.
